Timur Boguslavskiy picked up where he left off at Magny-Cours by topping the opening Fanatec Sprint session at Zandvoort in the #89 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG.
Boguslavskiy and teammate Raffaele Marciello scored victory in the second race at the French circuit, extending their lead at the top of the standings to 11.5 points. He was on point again in free practice at the Dutch track, posting an unmatched time of 1m34.101s during the 80-minute session.
Aurélien Panis was second at the wheel of the #25 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi. The French driver posted a 1m34.185s, leaving him just 0.084s shy of Boguslavskiy. Next up was the #87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG driven by Thomas Drouet, which also led the Silver Cup classification thanks to a 1m34.438s.
A quartet of Audi runners came next with the #66 Attempto Racing leading the #33 Team WRT, the #30 Team WRT and the #26 Saintéloc Junior Team. The latter two crews also occupied second and third positions respectively in the Silver Cup.
The Pro-Am order was topped by the #188 Garage 59 McLaren, with Dean MacDonald at the wheel to post a 1m35.436s in the car he shares with Miguel Ramos. The Scottish racer was seven places and some 1.8 seconds clear of his closest class contender Cedric Sbirrazzuoli (#21 AF Corse Ferrari).
Free practice was bookended by a pair of red flags. The first was for Valentino Rossi, who put the #46 Team WRT Audi in the barriers at turn 3 just minutes into the session. The Italian was confined to the pits for the remainder and may require a change of chassis before he and Fred Vervisch can continue their weekend. The next stoppage came at the very end when a car ran wide at T12, depositing gravel on to the circuit and bringing proceedings to an early conclusion.
Competitors will be back on-track at 14:50 CEST for pre-qualifying, giving them a further 80 minutes of running at Zandvoort. Live coverage begins with tomorrow's opening qualifying session and will be available across a variety of online platforms, including the GT World YouTube channel, with commentary in English, French, Italian and German.
TIMETABLE
Friday 17 June
10:00 – Free Practice
14:50 – Pre-Qualifying
Saturday 18 June
09:45 – Qualifying 1 LIVE
14:00 – Race 1 LIVE
Sunday 19 June
09:30 – Qualifying 2 LIVE
14:00 – Race 2 LIVE