Following two rest days between the Prologue and the first race weekend of the 2024 season, Louis Deletraz put AO By TF at the top of the times to kick off the ELMS 4 Hours of Barcelona event in Free Practice 1 this afternoon.
The Swiss IMSA GTP driver set a 1:28.821 early in the session to better Alex Lynn’s early hot lap in the 2023 title-winning #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA. The time was rapid, but it was more than half a second off of the fastest lap set during the Prologue by Panis Racing’s Arthur Leclerc.
The #25 did however end up second with Lynn’s 1:29.053, before the car brought the session to an early end when Matthias Kaiser caused red flags, stopping on track with six minutes remaining with an apparent upright issue.
Duqueine’s #30 ORECA ended up third after 2023 series champion James Allen’s efforts, three-tenths off the AO entry, while the #28 IDEC and #22 United 07s (which briefly stopped in the gravel) completed the top five, both cars setting laps within seven-tenths of the benchmark time.
In LMP2 Pro/Am no drivers managed to set a time to put their car in the top 10 in the overall classification. The best lap came from Oliver Jarvis in the #21 United Autosports ORECA, a 1:30.026 to go 11th.
LMP3 meanwhile was headed by COOL Racing, its #17 JS P320 ending the 90-minute session with a time half a second faster than the field of the field, a 1:25.045 set by Manuel Espírito Santo.
The #15 Ligier from RLR slotted in second, with the #8 from team Virage third.
The two Duqueines ended up at the bottom of the list in eighth and ninth, while the Eurointernational Ligier sat out the session, presumably to conserve tyres.
It was a similar story for Ferrari in LMGT3, as 296s ended up occupying the top five positions in the times, with the #66 from JMW Motorsport leading the way.
The British team’s Ferrari toured the Spanish circuit in 1:40.826 during Phil Keen’s time behind the wheel.
Next up on the ELMS schedule is the Bronze Test at 16:20 local time.
