The 1m45.111 lap, posted by Webber early in the session, was over 2 seconds quicker than the current lap record, a 1m47.442 lap set by Allan McNish in 2013.  The Australian’s lap was also 0.240s ahead of his teammates, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas in the no18 919 Hybrid.

The two Audi R18s were 3rd and 4th on the timesheets with the no8 Audi of Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis improving the best time in the morning session by 0.8 seconds to finish the afternoon with a best lap of 1m45.930, 0.157s ahead of the no7 R18 of Lotterer, Fässler and Treluyer.  The two Toyotas were once again 5th and 6th fastest with the no2 TS040 ahead of the no1 Toyota by 0.5 seconds. 

The n013 Rebellion Racing R-One was the lead car in the privateer class, improving their best time in the morning session by 1.6 seconds with Alex Imperatori setting a 1m50.790 and finishing the session 0.7 seconds ahead of the no12 AER powered R-One and 3.2 seconds in front of the Bykolles CLM-AER.

In LMP2 the no47 KCMG Oreca 05-Nissan set the pace once again with a 1m54.185s lap set by Nick Tandy, an improvement of nearly one second on the morning session and a tenth of a second ahead of the no36 Signatech Alpine of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tom Dillmann.

The no28 G-Drive Racing Ligier was 3rd fastest in LMP2, followed by the no42 Strakka Racing Gibson, the no43 Team Sard Morand Morgan Evo in 4th and 5th places respectively. 

AF Corse Ferrari fightback in FP2

AF Corse Ferrari sounded a warning to title rivals Porsche Team Manthey in the second Free Practice session at Shanghai this afternoon as the pair of Ferrari 458 Italia’s topped the timing screens.

The afternoon session was significantly quicker than this mornings, and James Calado set an LMGTE Pro best of 2m03.028s to lead the way in the No.71 Ferrari 458 Italia. Calado, who shares the car with Davide Rigon, hooked up a fine lap to lead team mate and championship rival Toni Vilander who posted a 2m03.947 tour.

Fernando Rees claimed third best time with a 2m03.995s lap in the No.99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. The Brazilian’s best was 1.5s better than that achieved by Richie Stanaway in the earlier session this morning.

Porsche Team Manthey appeared to work on long stints throughout the entire session and the No.92 911 Porsche 911 RSR placed fourth while the No.91 car sat fifth.

In LMGTE Am it was again a tremendously close and competitive session. This time it was the SMP Racing Ferrari that led the way with Victor Shaytar continuing his excellent form to register a 2m04.523s lap to ensure the Ferrari 458 Italia that he shares with Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov enjoyed two tenths of a second advantage over the Larbre Chevrolet Corvette.

The Fuji class winning Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR came in third with Pat Long turning in a 2m05.112s lap. The American had been at the top of the LMGTE Am class for a short time before the Ferrari and Corvette usurped the Porsche which he shares with Patrick Dempsey and Marco Seefried.

The third Free Practice session will take place tomorrow morning at 09:00 (local) and will last for 60-minutes.  Later in the day the competitors will take place in qualifying to determine the grid for Sunday’s race.