DC Racing emerged quickest in Road To Le Mans in wet conditions, rain falling throughout the session. Thomas Laurent, paired with Alexandre Cougnaud – set a 4:05.758 lap right at the end of the running and an impressive 4.128s ahead of the #61 Graff Ligier-Nissan of Britain’s James Winslow and Australian Dean Koutsoumidis with a 4:09.886 set by the British driver.
The #18 M Racing-YMR Ligier of Yann Ehrlacher and Romano Ricci was third quickest with Ehrlacher setting a 4:10.026 on the very last lap of Free Practice 1. The time was 0.2 seconds ahead of the only Ginetta on the entry list, which is the #32 Ginetta-Nissan of British duo Lawrence Tomlinson and reigning European Le Mans Series LMP3 champion Charlie Robertson.
The #2 United Autosports Ligier Nissan of Martin Brundle and Christian England was fifth quickest, with Brundle setting a 4m12.602 lap in the tricky conditions on the 13.6 km La Sarthe circuit.
Meanwhile, of the GT3 runners, the #57 AF Corse Ferrari F488 of Aleksey Basov and Viktor Shaitar posted the quickest time in the GT3 class, with Shaitar setting a 4:15.418 lap, which was good enough for an impressive 6th place overall and six tenths ahead of the second placed car the no17 Duqueine Engineering Ferrari F458 Italia GT3 of Christophe Hamon and Lonni Martins.
The first of the regular Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup runners searching for points was the #88 Mentos Racing Porsche 911 of Egidio Perfetti and Klaus Bachler. Bachler managed a a 4:17.763 lap, 2.3 seconds adrift of the lead Ferrari.
The next track session for the Road To Le Mans competitors will be tomorrow at 14:30 for the second Free Practice session, followed by qualifying at 18:00 to decide the grid for the 55-minute race on Saturday morning.
