Free Practice
Kessel Racing’s Dennis Marschall was fastest in a shortened Free Practice for the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup finale at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia.
Marschall, piloting the Bronze Cup-entered #74 Ferrari 296 GT3, set a 1:32.156 moments after the halfway mark of the 100-minute session, displacing the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari of Chris Lulham from the top of the timesheets.
Lulham, with a 1:32.268, was fastest in the opening 40 minutes reserved for Silver and Bronze-graded drivers and held on to finish second overall and best of the Gold Cup runners.
Third fastest was another Gold Cup entry, the #58 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo of Thomas Fleming, ahead of the Silver Cup-leading #992 Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Maxime Oosten.
Best of the Pro runners, in fifth overall, was Mateo Villagomez in the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo with a 1:32.395. The German squad is making up for lost time, after technical issues limited their running in the pre-event test.
The #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW and #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II were sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of the first of the overall title contenders, Jordan Pepper in the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2.
The #30 Team WRT BMW and #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo completed the top 10, with the championship-leading #32 Team WRT BMW ending up in 14th.
All 39 cars entered for this weekend took to the circuit, with the #27 QMMF by Sainteloc Racing Audi heading the mileage charts with 33 laps on the board.
The field has decreased to 39 entries at the last minute, following the withdrawal of the #112 CSA Racing McLaren. The French outfit has also adjusted the line-up of its #111 McLaren, with Loris Cabirou joining regular driver Simon Gachet and the car moving from Pro to the Gold Cup.
The main story of Free Practice was circuit damage, which saw the Red Flag waved with just under 40 minutes to go. Despite an additional 40 minutes being added to the clock, repairs could not be completed in time to resume the session.
This is the second track-related issue at Valencia in as many days, with required repairs at Turn 4 triggering a stoppage during Thursday’s test. The test, incidentally, was led by AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors’ Thomas Neubauer in the #50 Ferrari.
Pre-Qualifying
Kessel Racing’s Dennis Marschall continued to lead the way at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Pre-Qualifying, with the German heading a Ferrari 1-2-3 at the top of the times.
Bronze Cup drivers’ championship leader Marschall set a 1:31.992 aboard the #74 296 GT3 just after the halfway point of the 60-minute session, becoming the first driver to go beneath the 1:32 mark so far this weekend.
Ferrari works driver Alessio Rovera was second in the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari following a 1:32.046 set early on, with Arthur Leclerc competing the top three in the Italian squad’s sister #50 entry.
The trio of Ferraris was followed by three Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos, headed by the #48 Winward Racing entry of defending drivers’ champion Lucas Auer, who set a 1:32.169 during a run of mid-session improvements kicked off by Marschall’s session-topping effort.
Cesar Gazeau was fifth fastest in the Silver Cup-leading #10 Boutsen VDS entry with a 1:32.282. Gazeau’s Pro-entered teammate Maxime Martin completed the top six aboard the #9 AMG GT3 Evo.
Seventh went to Bastian Buus’ #89 Lionspeed GP Porsche, ahead of Gilles Magnus in the Gold Cup-topping #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. A pair of title contenders, the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo and #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), completed the top 10.
29 cars finished the session within one second, with the last of them being the overall championship-leading #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
After a disrupted Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying was the first significant track time of the day for many, with only a brief Full Course Yellow late on interrupting proceedings. The #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG led the lap count with 29 tours of the 4.005-kilometre circuit.
Track action in Valencia continues tomorrow with Qualifying 1 at 09:00 CEST, ahead of Race 1 at 14:15 CEST.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
