Paul Loup Chatin finished at the top of the times in the second ELMS Red Bull Ring Free Practise session thos morning, driving the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA 07 Gibson.
The Frenchman clocked the fastest lap – a 1:19.616 – to put the #28 ahead of the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 07 driven by Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola and Jean-Eric Vergne (1:19.750) and the #24 Racing Engineering ORECA 07 Gibson shared by Norman Nato, Olivier Pla and Paul Petit (1:19.832). Chatin’s show of pace continued from yesterday, when he ran fastest during the first free practise session. He improved his lap time just over four tenths of a second.
Heavy rain poured on the race track some fifteen minutes after the green flag though, preventing further improvments as the circuit remained damp until the chequered flag.
Slippery conditions led to two Full-Course Yellow episodes: the first one occurred after thirteen minutes of practise as the #31 APR Rebellion Racing ORECA 07 Gibson driven by Harrison Newey went off-track at Turn 4. Twenty minutes later, James Allen in the #40 G-Drive Racing ORECA 07 went into the barriers at Turn 8. This triggered the second FCY.
In LMP3, Job Van Uitert in the #15 RLR Motorsport set the fastest lap time,a 1:27.176. It was two tenths shy of the fastest LMP3 lap time set yesterday by Matthieu Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma M30 Nissan. The #19 M Racing YMR Norma driven by Alain Ferté, David Droux and Lucas Legeret finished up in second (1:27.780) ahead of the #2 United Autosport Ligier JSP3 shared by John Falb and Sean Rayhal (1:28.486).
And in LMGTE, Matt Griffin finished the session on top with a 1:29.845 in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari F488 GTE ahead of the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR shared by Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst and Dennis Olsen. The #80 Ebimotors driven by Gianluca Roda, Giorgio Roda and Matteo Cairoli snatched third in class (1:30.051).
Qualifying for the ELMS will take place at 13:50 local time this afternoon.
