The two outgoing Mercedes-AMG factory drivers Danny Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello initially topped the times in Free Practice 2 at Macau on Thursday afternoon. The 30-minute session was led by the Spaniard until, in a carbon copy of the morning session, Marciello pipped him at the post – his 2:15.565 edging out Juncadella by 5 thousandths of a second.
His pleasure though was short-lived as a fired-up Matteo Cairoli leapfrogged both AMG drivers to end the session on top. The Italian’s 2:15.532 at the death put him just over three hundredths clear in his #120 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R.
To give an idea of how rapid the time was, it now stands as the quickest lap of Macau in FIA GT World Cup history. The previous record was a 2:15.669 from Marciello in Qualifying for the 2019 edition.
Fourth fastest was a much improved Daniel Serra, the #48 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 pilot right in the mix throughout the session.
The two BMWS were next up, Augusto Farfus ahead of Sheldon van der Linde, the #11 WRT M4GT3 driver almost a tenth up on his ROWE Racing rival. Eduardo Mortara was again the quickest of the Audi pilots, seventh fastest in the #40 R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 ahead of Pro Engel whose final push was spoiled when he outbraved himself, taking the run-off and rejoining without damage.
The top eight were separated by under three-tenths of a second.
Next up on the schedule for the GT runners is Qualifying at 14:05 local time tomorrow.
Image courtesy of Absolute Racing
