Mercedes-AMG Team Akkodis ASP led an incident-filled opening free practice session of 2022 at Imola, which saw the fastest 27 cars covered by less than one second.
Raffaele Marciello posted a 1m40.298s to edge the #95 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin of Maxime Martin by 0.127s at the top of the timesheets. Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed was the third quickest overall courtesy of Luca Stolz, who was 0.134s shy of Marciello.
A trio of Audi runners filled the next three positions: Patric Niederhauser was fourth for Saintéloc Racing, followed by Kelvin van der Linde (#32 Team WRT) and Fred Vervisch (#46 Team WRT). BMW and McLaren were also represented in the top-10 by ROWE Racing (P7) and JP Motorsport (P10).
Attempto Racing led the Silver Cup with its #99 Audi. Alex Aka posted a 1m40.623s to finish eighth overall and within three-tenths of the overall pace. This was seven positions clear of the #777 Al Manar by HRT Mercedes-AMG, while the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi was a further place back.
Winward Racing topped the new Gold Cup class with its #57 Mercedes-AMG thanks to Lucas Auer, whose 1m40.713s was good enough for 12th overall. Beechdean AMR’s strong overall showing was complemented by its #97 Aston Martin taking second among the Gold runners in 13th overall. In Pro-Am, AF Corse emerged on top thanks to a 1m41.353s lap from Andrea Bertolini that placed the #52 Ferrari in P30 overall.
With a 52-car field this weekend, finding space for a clean lap was difficult. This was compounded by no fewer than nine full-course yellow periods to replace a bollard that was repeatedly knocked out of place the Variante Alta chicane.
There were further incidents for the #3 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, which spun at Acque Minerali, and late contact that involved the #54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche, the #159 Garage 59 McLaren and the #33 Team WRT Audi. The latter was also involved in contact on pit lane with the #88 Mercedes-AMG Team Akkodis ASP car.
The session also saw Valentino Rossi make his first appearance in a competitive session since switching to GT racing. The Italian took over from Vervisch at the wheel of the #46 Team WRT Audi and lapped within two seconds of the Belgian.
