-
Porsche leads all three classes, with #22 Allied Racing Porsche quickest overall
-
Pro-Am led by #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche (Still/Kronberg) – quickest Am lap for #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche of season's big-hitter Alban Varutti
-
last year's pole-sitters Alpine and last event's strong performers Toyota yet to make a stand
The opening 20 minutes of Free Practice 1 saw some less frequent competitors in the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club take front stage. The newly entered #117 L'Espace Bienvenue BMW M4 GT4 (Lessennes/van der Ende) was the first to hit a lap time in the 2'30-range that would remain on top of the boards for an extended period of time, before Porsches started taking over at the halfway point.
Similar situation for the GT4 Scandinavia cars joining the grid at Spa-Francorchamps: the #298 M-Bilar Group Racing BMW (Bouveng/Walde) put in a very early strong lap that would last well into the session, before the #288 Alfab Racing McLaren Artura GT4 (Roos/Behrens) took over the GT4 Scandinavia lead and finished 10th overall.
At the session's midway point, Porsche teams well and truly took command when the #22 Allied Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Hartvig/Schaap put in a sharp 2'30.210 that would put them ahead for good. At the same time, cars of the same brand claimed the lead in both other classes. No surprise to see the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche on that position in the hands of Alban Varutti (once again driving alone throughout the Spa-Francorchamps event). The #76 Centri Porsche Ticino Porsche (Fontana/Hofmann) was quickest Pro-Am at that point, but would later lose that class lead to the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche of Still/Kronberg who set a solid 2'31.004 that would take them to fifth overall.
A strong performance by the #78 Elite Motorsport McLaren (Mitchell/Denning) initially held them within the Top 5. But then a strong push in the final stages by the #111 CSA Racing Audi (Castelli/Cougnaud) to take fourth overall, and the #23 Overdrive Racing Porsche (Bostandjiev/Lefterov) to move into second, eventually saw the McLaren drop to sixth and first non-German brand.
The second Free Practice session for the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club is set for 20.05 CEST on Thursday evening. Qualifying starts Friday at 11.30 CEST, with Race 1 following at 18.00 CEST. The event will reach its final stage on Saturday July 1st with Race 2 scheduled for 13.15 CEST.
Both qualifying and the races will be streamed live in English, French and German via the GT4 European Series website and the GTWorld YouTube channel.
Free Practice 1 : Results
