+PROVISIONAL RESULT: Pre-Qualifying, Circuit Paul Ricard
Last year’s championship runners-up, Robert Consani and Benjamin Lariche, showed they mean business this season by scoring the fastest time of Pre-Qualifying at Circuit Paul Ricard for the Team Speedcar Audi.
Having finished inside the top five in opening practice, the pair took advantage of cooler track temperatures in the evening to dip beneath the afternoon session’s best time, with Lariche clocking a 2:11.832s lap at mid-distance, which would prove uncatchable for the rest. The result was sealed when the session was ended a few minutes early by a red flag.
Benjamin Lessennes led the early times, before Raphael Rennhofer took a turn at the top in the #99 PROsport Aston Martin, before Lariche scorched to the front. Ruben del Sarte did the best job of getting close to Lariche’s benchmark in the Mirage Racing Aston he shares with Josh Miller, but even his best fell 0.4s shy.
Finn Zulauf put in a superb lap to bring his and Max Kronberg’s W&S Motorsport into third, securing the top Pro-Am time in the process shortly before the #74 Racing Spirit of Léman Vantage ground to a halt on track bringing out the red flags late on.
Rennhofer and Hugo Sasse held fourth until the session was stopped, while Matéo Villagomez and Jamie Day made it four Aston Martins in the top five in their Racing Spirit of Léman car. Lluc Ibañez and Alex Papadopulos were sixth quickest in NM Racing Team's second Mercedes-AMG, ahead of practice one leaders Etienne Cheli and Enzo Joulié’s Matmut Évolution Toyota.
GPA Racing completed the sweep in the Am class, with Kevin Jimenez once again keeping the car on the fringes of the top 10. Pascal Huteau and Laurent Hurgon scored the second-best time in class in the Schumacher CLRT Alpine, ahead of NM Racing Team’s second Mercedes-AMG in the hands of Andy Cantu/Dilantha Malagamuwa.
Qualifying for the opening round of the season at Circuit Paul Ricard is scheduled for 11:10 local time on Saturday, April 6.