Porsche continued its strong start to the 6 Hours of Silverstone race weekend by storming to another one-two finish in second practice on Friday evening.
Coming off the back of its dominant display in the FIA World Endurance Championship last year, Porsche enters the new campaign with a refined version of its 919 Hybrid to defend both titles.
Timo Bernhard set the pace in the opening practice session for Porsche to head up a one-two finish, and FP2 proved to be a repeat affair as the no. 1 car shared by Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley finished in top spot.
A fastest lap of 1:39.655 was enough to give Porsche P1 in a damp second practice, with the no. 2 of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani slotting into second place, albeit 1.6 seconds down.
Audi had a productive session, completing 83 laps with its pair of R18 cars as Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi ended FP2 in third place ahead of Toyota's no. 6 car. The sister Audi ended the session fifth ahead of the second Toyota in P6.
In LMP2, Strakka Racing's Nick Leventis, Jonny Kane and Danny Watts topped the timesheets, edging out the debutant Manor team by less than one-tenth of a second. Signatech Alpine rounded out the top three in class with its no. 36 car.
AF Corse continued to dominate in GTE Pro as the no. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado swept to P1 in the timesheets, the Briton setting the fastest lap. His time was two-tenths of a second quicker than that of former teammate Davide Rigon, who finished second alongside Sam Bird. Richard Lietz was the best of the rest for the Dempsey Proton team, finishing third in his Porsche 911 RSR.
Porsche bit back in GTE Am though as the no. 86 Gulf Racing car topped the class, finishing seven-tenths of a second clear of the no. 98 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda.
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