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#22 Allied-Racing Porsche continues to shine in the series and takes quickest overall
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four brands represented in top 5, eight out of nine feature in top 10
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Silver Cup championship contenders hover around P10 overall
In the early stages of the session, Valentin Hasse-Clot didn't hesitate to make his occasional presence in the series noted by putting a swift 1'49.931 on the boards in the #39 GPA Racing Aston Martin. He was equaled moments later by Alexander Hartvig in the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche with a strong 1'49.947 lap. Those two front runners would occupy the two highest lines on the tables until well past the midway point, only to be joined in the sub 1'50'' top three by the #77 Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering McLaren Artura GT4.
After most of the drivers had handed over to their teammates halfway through, the Barcelona track clearly started to offer more grip as the session progressed. Soon enough, a number of cars would start hitting lap times in the 1'49'' range, with Nathan Schaap leading the pack again in the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche with just 15 minutes left to run.
The #8 Xwift Racing Events Toyota, #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG and both #55 and #110 Autosport GP LS Group Performance Alpine cars would follow suit, delegating that early and long standing fastest lap by Hasse-Clot down to a final P6 overall.
The championship leading BMW, meanwhile, just managed to touch top 10 lap times: Schrey/Piana finished P10 overall in the #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport M4. Besler/Edgar finally managed P13 in the #12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport car. The BMW's never managed to find enough pace to join the pointy end of the tables, and the same goes for Lariche/Consani in the #3 Team Speedcar Audi. A late effort in the final stages puts them between their BMW rivals at 11th overall after Free Practice 1.
Teams and drivers will get another shot at finding the perfect setup during Pre-Qualifying which follows this afternoon, at 15.40 CEST.
After that, the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club truly heads into money time, when Qualifying goes green at 11.25 CEST on Saturday. Race 1 opens the proper racing action at 16.50 CEST on Saturday afternoon. Race 2 at Barcelona concludes the season and starts Sunday at 11.20 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.
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Barcelona – Free Practice Session - Results