AMG Team GetSpeed led the way in this morning's free practice session at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Mercedes-AMG factory ace Maro Engel was at the wheel of the #2 machine, posting a 1m44.366s to comfortably top the times. He was 0.311s clear of Klaus Bachler (#54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche) with Jack Aitken placing third in the #63 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini.
The championship contenders were some way back. Akkodis ASP was 10th with its #88 Mercedes-AMG, almost a second shy of the similar #2 GetSpeed machine. The #71 Iron Lynx Ferrari was even further adrift, placing 22nd at the end of the 90-minute run. However it would be no surprise to see both hit the front when things get serious.
The lead Silver Cup car was fourth overall after Aurélien Panis posted a 1m44.893s in the #26 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi. The top Gold Cup runner was the #33 Team WRT Audi of Ryuichiro Tomita in P7 overall, while the #188 Garage 59 McLaren led Pro-Am. Henrique Chaves was 12th overall, ensuring that all four categroies were represented in the first quarter of the field.
The session was punctuated by two red flag stoppages. The first came almost exactly halfway through the 90-minute run when Christian Klien looped the #111 JP Motorsport McLaren into the gravel at turn 7. The car was undamaged, ensuring a quick recovery.
The second stoppage was caused by the Gold Cup-leading #33 Audi finding the barriers. Its rear-wing was damaged by the incident, necessitating another red flag. However the repair work did not appear too serious and the car should be back on-track for pre-qualifying at 13:40 CEST.
