Forestier Racing by Panis’ Esteban Masson was fastest in the opening Free Practice session for the European Le Mans Series season finale at Portimão.
The Frenchman set a 1:32.646 aboard the #29 ORECA 07- Gibson LMP2 inside the opening 20 minutes of the 90-minute session, surpassing the earlier effort of title rival Gregoire Saucy by 0.085 seconds.
Saucy ended up second overall in the #22 United Autosports ORECA, ahead of Algarve Pro Racing’s pair of entries.
Alex Lynn was third quickest in the #25 ORECA, with the Briton 0.002 seconds faster than his teammate Malthe Jakobsen, who topped LMP2 Pro/Am aboard the #20 ORECA.
The #28 IDEC Sport ORECA of Job van Uitert was fifth, ahead of the LMP2 Pro/Am-entered #3 DKR Engineering ORECA of Tristan Vautier.
The #43 Inter Europol Competition, #37 CLX Motorsport, #10 Vector Sport and #47 CLX Motorsport ORECAs completed the top 10.
The championship-leading #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of Louis Iglesias was fastest in LMP3.
Iglesias set a 1:39.917 shortly after the halfway point, displacing the #5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen by 0.610 seconds.
Gaarde Pedersen was second quickest, with the #13 Inter Europol Competition, #11 Eurointernational, #8 Team Virage and #68 M Racing entries completing a Ligier top six lockout.
And in LMGT3, Kessel Racing’s Daniel Serra was fastest aboard the #57 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo.
The Ferrari factory driver set a 1:42.798 early in the session to go fastest, before improving on his own best time with a 1:42.737.
The #23 United Autosports McLaren LMGT3 Evo was second, 0.159 seconds behind, in the hands of Wayne Boyd.
The #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 and #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari came next, with a late improvement from Matt Griffin placing the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari into the top five.
The #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 – Toyota brought out a Full Course Yellow inside the opening 30 minutes, when Hugo Schwarze stopped on track towards the end of Sector 1.
PJ Hyett then triggered a Red Flag inside the final 30 minutes, when he went off at Turn 12 aboard the #99 AO by TF ORECA.
Free Practice 2 at Portimão will take place tomorrow morning at 10:15 WEST. Before then, the 30-minute Bronze Driver Collective Test will be held this afternoon at 14:40 WEST.
Image courtesy of Forestier Racing by Panis
