Porsche led the way in both Free Practice sessions Thursday at Circuit of The Americas, with the German manufacturer topping the time charts in the day and night.
A late flyer by Timo Bernhard saw the No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid end up quickest in the evening’s 90-minute FP2.
Bernhard’s 1:47.442 lap time, however, was some two-tenths slower than teammate Romain Dumas, who paced FP1 and held as the quickest time of the day.
While it was another Porsche 1-2, Audi was in close reach, with the No. 8 R18 e-tron quattro coming within four-tenths of Dumas’ time, thanks to Loic Duval’s 1:47.684 set in the night.
G-Drive Racing was quickest in LMP2, with the No. 26 Ligier JS P2 Nissan improving by nearly two seconds on Nicolas Lapierre’s class pace-setting time from the afternoon.
Lapierre also improved in FP2 by posting a 1:56.324, with the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A450b Nissan completing the top-three in class.
Porsche Team Manthey (GTE-Pro) and SMP Racing (GTE-Am) led the production-based ranks in the evening and on the day overall.
No major incidents were reported during the night session, other than a number of cars getting penalties for abusing track limits.
Free Practice 3 gets underway on Friday at 10:30 a.m. local time, with qualifying set for the evening.
