ELMS
Nyck de Vries topped Free Practice 1 on Friday at Paul Ricard, the Dutchman one of only two drivers under 1:43 in the dry 90-minute session under sunny skies in the South of France.
His best effort of a 1:42.981 aboard the #26 Aurus 01 Gibson of G-Drive Racing just edging out Phil Hanson’s best effort in the #22 United Autosport’s Oreca by 16 thousandths.
Job van Uitert (#32 United), Roberto Merhi (#25 G-Drive) and James Allen (#65 Panis Racing) completed the fastest five.
Garrett Grist followed up his fine form in testing with an LMP3 session topping effort in the #20 Team Virage Ligier, 1:49.060 almost a quarter of a second up on David Droux (#8 Graff Ligier) and further gaps back to Wayne Boyd (#2 United Ligier), Laurents Hörr (#4 DKR Engineering Duqueine) and Duncan Tappy (#3 United Ligier).
GT meanwhile saw Ross Gunn top the FP1 times in the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin with a 1:52.693, two tenths up on the best of a pair of Iron Lynx Ferraris, Miguel Molina in the #80 ahead of Paolo Ruberti in the sister #60 488 with Matt Griffin #55 Spirit of race Ferrari and Richard Lietz, #93 Proton Porsche rounding out the Top 5.
John Falb topped the Friday evening Bronze Driver session with a 1:44.998 in the #25 G-Drive Aurus 01, over half a second up on Racing Team Turkey’s Salih Yoluc with Francois Heriau third fastest in the #29 Ultimate Oreca.
LMP3 saw Charles Crews put the #20 Team Virage Ligier on top with a 1:52.693, half a tenth clear of Rory Penttinen in the #9 Graff Ligier
In GT Rino Mastronardi (#80 Iron Lynx Ferrari) posted a 1:54.441 edged out Duncan Cameron, #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari, by just four-hundredths of a second.
It was another session-topping effort from the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01, Nyck de Vries shaving a tenth from his FP1 session topper with a 1:42.841, this time though ahead of Gabriel Aubry, a couple of tenths back in the #65 Panis Racing Oreca.
In LMP3 Ugo de Wilde put the #13 Inter Europol Ligier on top with a 1:49.612, a couple of tenths up on FP1 session topper Garrett Grist.
GT meanwhile saw Gianmari Bruni put the #77 Proton Porsche to the top of the times, a 1:52.193 fending off another strong run from Ross Gunn in the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin with Richard Lietz completing the top 3 in the #93 Proton Porsche.
Michelin Le Mans Cup
