Ferrari returned to the top of the World Endurance Championship timesheets for the first time since the Le Mans 24 Hours in second free practice for this weekend’s Austin round.
The two factory Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars, which could only finish fifth and sixth last time out in the WEC at Interlagos, ended up 1-2 in the times in the 90-minute Friday evening session.
Antonio Giovinazzi’s 1m52.268s in the #51 car put him just five hundredths of a second up on the 1m52.320s from team-mate Antonio Fuoco.
Fuoco was in turn only just six hundredths ahead of WRT BMW driver Robin Frijns, who got down to a 1m52.383s in his M Hybrid V8 LMDh.
Giovinazzi set the initial pace only to be leapfrogged by Frijns before responding to retake the top spot in an initial flurry of quick times in the opening 10 or so minutes of the session when the drivers were on fresh rubber.
Fuoco subsequently improved to jump to second and complete the Ferrari 1-2.
Alex Lynn took fourth place in the solo Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh with a 1m52.533s ahead of the customer Ferrari 499P in fifth on a 1m52.705s from Robert Kubica.
Sebastien Buemi was the best-placed Toyota driver in sixth with a 1m52.788s in the #8 GR010 HYBRID LMH, but Kamui Kobayashi set a time good enough for fourth in the sister car only to lose the lap to a track limits violation.
The second BMW claimed seventh on a 1m52.791s from Dries Vanthoor.
Toyota’s #7 entry ended up tenth in the Free Practice 2 classification courtesy of Mike Conway’s 1m52.052s, which was six tenths slower than Kobayashi’s deleted lap but still within a second of the pace.
The Toyotas sandwiched the two Jota customer Porsche 963 LMDhs, Norman Nato taking eighth with a 1m52.940s and Jenson Button ninth with a 1m53.042s.
Lamborghini claimed 11th thanks to a late improvement from Daniil Kvyat in the Italian manufacturer’s solo Iron Lynx-run SC63 LMDh, while Mick Schumacher was 12th in the best of the Alpine A424 LMDhs.
Matt Campbell, who topped the times in FP1, was only 13th in the best of factory Porsches.
He posted a time more than one second better than his eventual best of 1m53.492s late in the session to jump to fourth, only for the lap to be scrubbed out for track limits.
The two Peugeot 9X8 LMHs ended up 16th and 18th in the hands of Mikkel Jensen and Paul di Resta respectively.
The championship-leading Penske Porsche driven by Andre Lotterer finished between the two French cars in 17th.
The third-placed BMW precipitated a short mid-session red flag when Sheldon van der Linde lost the right rear wheel and stopped out on circuit.
#82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R: Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud, Daniel Juncadella
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The LMGT3 class order was headed by the TF Sport Chevrolet team, Daniel Juncadella getting down to 2m05.630s aboard the best of the American manufacturer’s Z06 GT3.Rs.
He ended up just four hundredths clear of late-improver Alessio Rovera, who got down to a 2m05.673s in the best of the AF Corse 296 GT3s.
David Rigon also lowered his time late in the session in the sister car, ending up third on a 2m05.708s
Final free practice for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race starts at 11:00 local time on Saturday, with the kick-off of qualifying at 15:00.
