Saintéloc Junior Team topped free practice at Misano as the Audi runners made a strong start at the Italian track.
Aurélien Panis posted a 1m31.625s at the wheel of the #25 machine during the opening phase of the 80-minute session and remained unbeaten until the chequered flag. The Saintéloc-run car was one of six Audis in the top-10, including three from Team WRT and two from local squad Tresor by Car Collection.
But this was not an entirely one-sided affair. Mercedes-AMG squad Akkodis ASP finished second on the timing screens thanks to Raffaele Marciello, whose late 1m31.652s was just 0.027s shy of Panis.
Porsche representative Dinamic Motorsport also showed well. Its #56 entry was sixth quickest courtesy of Klaus Bachler, while Christian Engelhart was eighth in the #54.
The only other brand among the top-10 was Ferrari, with the #53 AF Corse machine driven by Pierre-Alexandre Jean placing seventh overall. But this was only good enough for second in the Silver Cup classification, with the #30 Team WRT Audi of Thomas Neubauer taking fifth overall.
LP Racing made the perfect start to its maiden Fanatec Sprint outing by topping the Pro-Am order. The #888 Lamborghini was 16th quickest overall with Jonathan Ceccoto at the wheel, beating the #188 Garage 59 McLaren by fourth tenths.
It was not quite a perfect session for the #888, which caused a late yellow flag after spinning into the gravel at turn 13. The same corner also caught out Thomas Drouet (#87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG) around the halfway mark, causing the session's only stoppage.
Friday's action continues with pre-qualifying, which gets underway at 14:50 CEST. The opening qualifying session takes place on Saturday morning and is followed by race 1 in the afternoon, while this format is repeated on Sunday. From Saturday onwards, every second of the action will be broadcast live on a variety of online platforms, including the GT World YouTube channel, in English, German, French and Italian.
TIMETABLE
FRIDAY 1 JULY
Free Practice - 09:00
Pre-Qualifying - 14:50
SATURDAY 2 JULY
Qualifying 1 - 09:30
Race 1 - 15:00
SUNDAY 3 JULY
Qualifying 2 - 09:00
Race 2 - 14:45