The first 90-minute practice session for the 4 Hours of Imola weekend took place with air temperature at a toasty 27 degrees and the track at 45 degrees Celsius. The session was Red Flagged a couple of minutes early due to some debris on track but apart from that, the session was uninterrupted.
The #47 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca was the fastest of the 42 cars that took part, with Alexander Peroni posting a 1:32.845 early in the session.
Next up was the #31 TDS Racing X Vaillante Oreca, with 2016 4 Hours of Imola race winner Mathias Beche setting a 1:33.029 lap, 0.184s behind Peroni and just 0.009s ahead of round 1 winners Prema Racing after Louis Deletraz set a best time of 1m33.038.
The #22 United Autosports Oreca was 4th fastest, ahead of the #37 Cool Racing and the #88 AF Corse Orecas, the top 6 cars split by less than half a second.
The LMP3 field was headed by the #17 Cool Racing Ligier driven by Round 1 winner Malthe Jakobsen, the young Dane posting a 1:38.666 to finish at the head of the 13-car entry.
Jakobsen’s time was just 0.078 ahead of the second fastest car, the #10 Eurointernational Ligier of Xavier Lloveras.
The next three cars were split by just 0.028s, with the #3 United Autosports Ligier going third fastest with Kay Van Berlo setting a 1:39.102, just 0.026s ahead of the #14 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Mateusz Kaprzyk, which in turn was just 0.002s ahead of the #27 Cool Racing Ligier of Nicolas Maulini.
In LMGTE it was a Porsche at the head of the time sheets at the end of the 90-minute session, with a Ferrari in second and an Aston Martin in third.
The #18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 was the fastest of the 12 GTE cars, with Alessio Picariello posting a session best time of 1:41.801s, two tenths ahead of the #83 Iron Lynx Ferrari F488 GTE EVO of Michelle Gatting.
The Danish Iron Dames driver was just 0.004s ahead of the no95 Oman Racing with TF Sport Vantage after Jonny Adam posted a 1m42.074 lap.
The top four was rounded out by the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Mikkel Jensen, who set a 1:42.146 lap, 0.345s behind the #18 Porsche.
The second Free Practice session for the 4 Hours of Imola will take place tomorrow morning at 09h30 (CEST) followed by qualifying at 14h05.
