During the first three hours of Official Test Session 1 on Tuesday morning, most of the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club competitors had a thorough look around the 7 kms and 19 corners of Spa-Francorchamps. In Am class, it was the AVR-Avvatar #10 Porsche of Alban Varutti who continued to show excellent form and set the quickest time, almost a full second faster than the GPA Racing #72 Aston Martin (Jimenez/Grizaud) as second Am. Fastest Silver teams clocked in just short of the top 3, with the very steady Allied Racing #22 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Hartvig/Schaap leading the CSA Racing #111 Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Castelli/Cougnaud by a mere tenth of a second.
Fastest out of the blocks then were three Pro-Am entries, with the Autosport GP LS Group Performance #110 Alpine (Tirman/Cauhaupe) and the Saintéloc Junior Team #42 Audi (Guivert/Hamon) following a surprising lap time set by the GT4 Scandinavia championship leader: the Alfab Racing #288 McLaren Artura GT4 of Roos/Behrens.
Silver class took over in the second Official Test Session on Tuesday afternoon, with nine of the top 10 lap times going to Silver crews. Hartvig/Schaap confirmed their solid pace from Session 1 in the Allied Racing #22 Porsche to hit quickest overall. Together with the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport #2 BMW (Schrey/Piana) and the Autosport GP LS Group Performance #110 Alpine (Tirman/Cauhaupe), they were the only ones dropping below the 2'30''-mark.
While eight out of nine represented brands had already featured in the top 10 in both Official Test Sessions, the V8 Racing #17 Chevrolet (Rappange/Herremans) gave it all and finally found some better pace to try and make that nine out of nine, but couldn't reach higher than 16th overall. A few places further down the ranking at 19th finished the fastest GT4 Scandinavia entry: the M-Bilar Group Racing #298 BMW M4 GT4 of Bouveng/Walde.
With both official test sessions done and dusted, time to have a look at what's next. Wednesday at Spa-Francorchamps is all about the fans! Exciting new GT4 car news is up first, as Ford Performance will unveil the new Mustang GT4 at 14.00 CEST in the Spa-Francorchamps paddock. And the absolute highlight for all racing fans happens at 18.00 CEST, when the entire grid assembles for the legendary parade between the track and Spa city centre!
Track action resumes on Thursday with two Free Practice sessions at 14.00 CEST and 20.05 CEST. Friday opens with all-important Qualifying at 11.30 CEST, followed by Race 1 later that day, at 18.40 CEST. Race 2 is scheduled for Saturday 13.15 CEST. Qualifying and both races will be streamed live on the GT4 European Series website and GTWorld YouTube channel.
Official Test Session 1 : Results
Official Test Session 2 : Results