By alley - Sep 16, 2016, 1:31 PM ET

WEC: Duval keeps Audi on top in COTA practice

Audi led the way in final practice ahead of qualifying for this weekend's Circuit of The Americas round of the World Endurance Championship, which is paired with IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in a Saturday double-header.

Loic Duval topped the times with a 1m45.719s set on his fourth flying lap aboard the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro at the start of the one-hour session. That initially put him just over half a second up on teammate Marcel Fassler in the #7 Audi, before the two Porsche 919 Hybrids set their fastest times to separate the Audis.

Brendon Hartley ended up second with a 1m46.051s in the #1 Porsche to trail Duval by just over three tenths. Romain Dumas was just under three hundredths slower that his teammate in the second of the Porsches on a 1m46.080s. Fassler's 1m46.292s left him him fourth in the final times.

Kazuki Nakajima was the fastest Toyota driver in fifth position, ending up on a 1m46.883s in the #5 TS050 Hybrid.

Rebellion Racing was back on top in the battle of the LMP1 privateers, Alexandre Imperatori's 1m52.538s putting him seven tenths up on ByKolles driver Oliver Webb.

Roberto Merhi was quickest in LMP2 for the Manor team. The Spaniard's 1m55.696s in the Manor ORECA-Nissan 05 put him less than a tenth up on second-placed Bruno Senna in the RGR Sport Ligier-Nissan JSP2. Alex Brundle was third fastest in the G-Drive ORECA a further two tenths back.

Aston Martin was quickest in GTE Pro with a 2m03.368s from Marco Sorensen. That put the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE eight tenths up on the second-placed sister car, with Fernando Rees at the wheel, and a full second up on the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs with Gianmaria Bruni driving. Harry Tincknell was less than a tenth back in the fastest of the Ganassi Ford GTs.

Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche driver Kevin Estre just topped Aston Martin Racing's Pedro Lamy in GTE Am.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES:

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1m45.719ss
2	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m46.051ss
3	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m46.080ss
4	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1m46.292ss
5	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	1m46.883ss
6	LMP1	S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	1m47.347ss
7	LMP1	M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	1m52.538ss
8	LMP1	S.Trummer, O.Webb	ByKOLLES Racing Team	CLM/AER	1m54.270ss
9	LMP2	M.Rao, R.Bradley, R.Merhi	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	1m55.696ss
10	LMP2	R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.Albuquerque	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier/Nissan	1m55.741ss
11	LMP2	R.Rusinov, R.Rast, A.Brundle	G-Drive Racing	ORECA/Nissan	1m55.958ss
12	LMP2	G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	1m56.269ss
13	LMP2	N.Leventis, L.Williamson, J.Kane	Strakka Racing	Gibson/Nissan	1m56.405ss
14	LMP2	D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.Panciatici	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	1m56.770ss
15	LMP2	R.Dalziel, L.Derani, C.Cumming	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	1m56.855ss
16	LMP2	S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van Overbeek	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	1m56.902ss
17	LMP2	N.Minassian, M.Mediani	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	1m57.249ss
18	LMP2	V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.Ladygin	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	1m57.862ss
19	GTE Pro	N.Thiim, M.Sorensen	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2m03.368ss
20	GTE Pro	D.Turner, F.Rees	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2m04.173ss
21	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	2m04.374ss
22	GTE Pro	M.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	2m04.452ss
23	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, S.Bird	AF Corse	Ferrari	2m04.528ss
24	GTE Pro	S.Mucke, O.Pla	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	2m04.673ss
25	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Dempsey Racing - Proton	Porsche	2m05.186ss
26	GTE Am	K.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, K.Estre	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	2m06.038ss
27	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2m06.199ss
28	GTE Am	L.Viljoen, P.Ragues, R.Taylor	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	2m06.476ss
29	GTE Am	M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker	Gulf Racing UK	Porsche	2m06.791ss
30	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	2m07.068ss
31	GTE Am	C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias	KCMG	Porsche	2m08.606ss