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Audi 1-2-3 in Le Mans warm up: have they been sandbagging?

Autosport

Autosport10:06pm 13 June 2015

Audi locked out the top three positions in the warm-up for the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours, with Filipe Albuquerque setting the pace in the #9 R18 e-tron Quattro.

Albuquerque’s 3m19.423s lap 20 minutes into the 45-minute session is the fastest time an Audi has set this week at Le Mans, and it put him comfortably clear of the #8 and #7 crews.

Oliver Jarvis bettered Lucas di Grassi’s earlier time in the #8 car with his final lap of the session, but it was only a minor improvement and left their car more than two seconds behind Albuquerque’s effort.

The third Audi, which set its first time with 10 minutes to go in the hands of Marcel Fassler, completed the lockout for the German manufacturer on race morning.

The final lap for Romain Dumas moved the polesitting #18 Porsche into fourth place, putting it ahead of the #17 919’s best lap from Timo Bernhard early in the session.

Sebastien Buemi, who completed the whole session in the #1 Toyota, moved up to sixth with his final lap, jumping ahead of Nick Tandy’s time in the #19 Porsche.

Tandy’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was on course to improve the #19’s best in the closing stages.

While the Formula 1 driver’s lap briefly looked like it would be interrupted by a slow zone in the Porsche Curves, the track was cleared by the time he arrived.

Despite setting a personal best time in the first sector and an overall best in sector two, Hulkenberg pitted at the end of the lap.

The #2 Toyota, which like its sister car did not complete a driver change, rounded out the top eight in the hands of Alexander Wurz.

Only one of the Nissan GT-R LM NISMOs – which were yesterday demoted to 30th, 31st and 32nd on the grid – set a laptime, with Michael Krumm’s 3m45.730s leaving the #22 entry 26 seconds off the pace.

The #21 Nissan only completed two laps, while the #23 car did not appear at all.

LMP2 CONTENDERS CLOSE

Jota Sport led the way in LMP2, through a 3m39.559s lap set by Mitch Evans with 15 minutes remaining, as the top four cars in qualifying occupied the top four places.

Greaves Motorsport with Jon Lancaster and polesitter KCMG through Matt Howson set identical times, 0.401s behind Evans, while G-Drive Racing (OAK) was fourth.

The Ibanez Racing ORECA stopped at the first Mulsanne chicane on its maiden lap, but was able to rejoin the session, albeit without setting a representative time.

ASTON LEADS GTE

Stefan Mucke put Aston Martin Racing on top of GTE Pro, going quickest in the #97 Vantage on the last lap of the session.

Ferrari’s Gianmaria Bruni looked set to end the warm-up fastest in the #51 AF Corse-run 458 Italia, before Mucke pipped the Italian by just over two tenths with a 3m57.311s in the AMR ‘art car’.

The #71 Ferrari – which will start the racesecond from last after a penalty for Olivier Beretta setting a qualifying time outside 120 per cent of the fastest Porsche LMP1 – ended up one place below its sister car in the order, 1.5s back.

Klaus Bachler set the pace in the GTE Am class at 3m59.456s in the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, though was pictured moving slowly at the end of the session.

The GTE Am Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C7.R also hit trouble, though in more severe fashion.

Giancluca Roda spun at the Porsche Curves and slammed into the concrete wall on the outside, the same place the #63 GTE Pro Corvette suffered its event-ending crash in qualifying.

WARM-UP RESULTS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time
1 LMP1 F.Albuquerque, M.Bonanomi, R.Rast Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 3m19.423s
2 LMP1 L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 3m21.740s
3 LMP1 M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 3m22.162s
4 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb Porsche Team Porsche 3m22.729s
5 LMP1 T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley Porsche Team Porsche 3m22.730s
6 LMP1 A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima Toyota Racing Toyota 3m23.361s
7 LMP1 N.Hulkenberg, E.Bamber, N.Tandy Porsche Team Porsche 3m23.964s
8 LMP1 A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway Toyota Racing Toyota 3m28.114s
9 LMP1 N.Prost, M.Beche, N.Heidfeld Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 3m30.495s
10 LMP1 A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, D.Abt Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 3m30.633s
11 LMP2 S.Dolan, M.Evans, O.Turvey JOTA Gibson/Nissan 3m39.559s
12 LMP2 G.Hirsch, G.Paletou, J.Lancaster Greaves Motorsport Gibson/Nissan 3m39.960s
13 LMP2 M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Lapierre KCMG ORECA/Nissan 3m39.960s
14 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 3m41.579s
15 LMP2 P.Thiriet, T.Gommendy, L.Badey Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA/Nissan 3m42.261s
16 LMP2 C.Cumming, L.Vanthoor, K.Estre Oak Racing Ligier/HPD 3m42.479s
17 LMP2 N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 3m42.999s
18 LMP2 S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 3m43.956s
19 LMP2 N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane Strakka Racing Dome/Nissan 3m44.141s
20 LMP2 G.Yacaman, L.Derani, R.Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 3m44.786s
21 LMP2 L.Roussel, D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung Pegasus Racing Morgan/Nissan 3m44.863s
22 LMP1 S.Trummer, P.Kaffer, T.Monteiro Team ByKolles CLM/AER 3m44.964s
23 LMP2 K.Chandhok, M.Patterson, N.Berthon Murphy Prototypes ORECA/Nissan 3m45.103s
24 LMP1 H.Tincknell, M.Krumm, A.Buncombe Nissan Motorsports Nissan 3m45.730s
25 LMP2 P.Ragues, O.Webb, Z.Amberg Team SARD Morand Morgan/SARD 3m45.883s
26 LMP2 M.Mediani, D.Markozov, N.Minassian SMP Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 3m47.551s
27 LMP2 M.Aleshin, K.Ladygin, A.Ladygin SMP Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 3m48.950s
28 LMP2 E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 3m52.111s
29 LMP2 T.Krohn, N.Jonsson, J.Barbosa Krohn Racing Ligier/Judd 3m53.253s
30 GTE Pro D.Turner, S.Mucke, R.Bell Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 3m57.311s
31 LMP2 J.Nicolet, J-M.Merlin, E.Maris Oak Racing Ligier/HPD 3m57.476s
32 GTE Pro G.Bruni, T.Vilander, G.Fisichella AF Corse Ferrari 3m57.543s
33 GTE Pro D.Rigon, J.Calado, O.Beretta AF Corse Ferrari 3m58.926s
34 GTE Pro R.Lietz, M.Christensen, J.Bergmeister Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 3m59.162s
35 GTE Pro O.Gavin, T.Milner, J.Taylor Corvette Racing Chevrolet 3m59.271s
36 GTE Am C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 3m59.456s
37 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas AF Corse Ferrari 4m01.114s
38 GTE Pro F.Rees, A.MacDowall, R.Stanaway Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4m01.428s
39 GTE Am P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried Dempsey Racing – Proton Porsche 4m02.213s
40 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4m02.229s
41 GTE Am G.Roda, P.Ruberti, K.Poulsen Larbre Competition Chevrolet 4m02.823s
42 GTE Am H.C.Chen, G.Vannelet, M.Parisy Team AAI Porsche 4m02.874s
43 GTE Am J.Bleekemolen, B.Keating, M.Miller Riley Motorsports-Ti Auto SRT/Dodge 4m02.905s
44 GTE Am V.Shaitar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov SMP Racing Ferrari 4m03.352s
45 GTE Am D.Cameron, M.Griffin, A.Mortimer AF Corse Ferrari 4m03.740s
46 GTE Am A.Al Faisal, K.Giermaziak, M.Avenatti JMW Motorsport Ferrari 4m07.130s
47 GTE Am J.San Chen, A.Kapadia, X.Maassen Team AAI Porsche 4m09.960s
48 GTE Am P.Mann, R.Giammaria, M.Cressoni AF Corse Ferrari 4m11.026s
49 GTE Am B.Sweedler, T.Bell, J.Segal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 4m14.446s
50 LMP1 T.Matsuda, M.Shulzhitskiy, L.Ordonez Nissan Motorsports Nissan
51 LMP1 O.Pla, J.Mardenborough, M.Chilton Nissan Motorsports Nissan
52 LMP2 P.Perret, I.Bellarosa, J.Ibanez Ibanez Racing ORECA/Nissan
53 GTE Pro P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki, W.Henzler Porsche Team Manthey Porsche
54 GTE Pro M.Sorensen, C.Nygaard, N.Thiim Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin
55 GTE Am R.Goethe, S.Hall, F.Castellacci Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin

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