The first free practice session for the Brands Hatch meeting of the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series got underway with 20 cars. Since the #62 Fortec Mercedes is not yet repaired after the crash suffered during the previous round at Nogaro, the Fortec team entered only one car, which is driven by Miguel Toril and Armaan Ebrahim. Due to personal reasons Marc A. Hayek and Peter Kox, drivers of the #24 Blancpain Racing Lamborghini, were not able to make it to Brands Hatch either.
The British round of the Sprint Series sees two new entries however: the #89 Farnbacher Racing Porsche and the #88 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini, the latter immediately making an impression by clocking the quickest time of the first free practice session, in the hands of Tomas Enge.
The Lamborghini FL II seems to be going well at the Kent venue, since the #28 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini, driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen, was only a couple of tenths of a second behind for most of the session. The #90 Scuderia Villorba Corse Ferrari went to third, in the hands of Andrea Montermini.
The session was interrupted eleven minutes before the end, when newcomer Philipp Frommenwiler hit the barriers coming out of Stirlings.
Next free practice session starts at 12.45 local time.
Jeroen Bleekemolen (#88 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini): “These free practice sessions are pretty hectic, since you only have two hours to get everything just right for qualifying. We still have some work to do, especially in the low speed corners. But I am fairly happy with how everything is going.”
Andrea Montermini (#90 Scuderia Villorba Corse Ferrari): “I love driving at this track. The first time I drove here was in 1990, in F3000. Fortunately, the weather now is a lot better than back then. We have been working hard to improve our Ferrari since Nogaro and it looks like we are moving in the right direction. The set-up is feeling very good.”