Vincent Abril led a Ferrari 1-2-4 in a disrupted Pre-Qualifying at Brands Hatch ahead of the opening round of the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup.
Abril set a 1:23.754 early on in the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3, as cloud cover resulted in cooler conditions than this morning’s Free Practice.
Konsta Lappalainen got within 0.014 seconds of Abril’s time aboard the #14 Emil Frey Racing 296 GT3, whilst Sven Müller was third in the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992). Arthur Leclerc rounded out the top four in the #50 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors entry.
Sandy Mitchell placed the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 fifth fastest, ahead of the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Luca Engstler.
Lucas Auer set a 1:24.099 aboard the #48 Winward Racing Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which led Free Practice to end up seventh, with Adam Smalley fastest in the Gold Cup in eighth overall aboard the #58 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo.
Leading the Silver Cup, in 11th overall, was Aurelien Panis in the #10 Boutsen VDS AMG GT3 Evo with a 1:24.255. An incredible 24 of the 30 cars were separated by under a second.
Steller Motorsport ended eighth in the Silver Cup with its Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Jesse Salmenautio, who is racing the car for the first time this weekend, set a 1:24.936 early in the session.
The session ended after only 43 of the scheduled 60 minutes, after a heavy off for Romain Andriolo in the #64 HRT Ford Performance Mustang GT3 at Paddock Hill Bend brought out the Red Flags.
Before the car returned to the garage, team principal Sean Paul Breslin wasn’t confident that the damage would be repairable ahead of Qualifying, which takes place at 16:35 BST.
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
