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 Italias topped the timing screens.
The afternoon session was significantly quicker than this morning's, 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 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 he shares with Patrick Dempsey and Marco Seefried.
The final Free Practice session is scheduled to begin at 09.00 local time on Saturday morning.
CLICK HERE for the result from FP2
