All 29 cars were out on the stunning Red Bull Ring in bright sunshine this morning for the first of two 90 minute Free Practice sessions.
The session was interrupted almost on the hour mark after contact with the barrier at T2 from the #5 Scuderia Villorba Corse Ginetta Nissan LMP3 of Roberto Lacorte brought out the red flags.
The car was recovered to the pits with a flat bed, damage to the left rear of the car, the driver though reported to be OK.
Fastest overall was the #38 Jota Gibson Nissan – an early session 1:23.538 from Filipe Albuquerque almost half a second clear of the best of the rest.
That was Jon Lancaster in the other Gibson, the #41 Greaves Motorsport car ending the session 13 thousandths clear of the #46 Thiriet by TDS Oreca 05 (Gommendy) and the #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03.R (Berthon).
LMP3 saw Charlie Robertson gain fastest in the #3 Team LNT Ginetta Nissan (1:31.155) with the #15 SVK by Speed Factory car ending the session just a tenth shy of that mark and Mark Shulzhitskiy improving to third late in the session, the top three in the class separated by just seven tenths of a second with the damaged Villorba Corse car a couple of seconds off.
GTE presented a Ferrari 1,2, the #51 AF Corse car in the hands of Raffaele Giammaria topping the times, 13th fastest overall with a 1:30.333, three tenths clear of the #56 AT Racing 458, Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel. The #56 car though lost out on track time with a 5 minute stop and hold after crossing the pit entry blend line.
Richard Lietz claimed third in the times in the #88 Proton Porshe, the top three in this class also separated by seven tenths!
Finally GTC where the TDS Racing BMW finished on top, a 1:32.236 less than a tenth clear of the #64 AF Corse Ferrari which was just a hundredth clear of the sister #63 458, the difference between the top three just 79 thousandths of a second.
