Dries Vanthoor led this morning's Free Practice at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in the #32 Team WRT BMW.
The Belgian ace set a 1m39.888s around the halfway point in the 90-minute session. In doing so he beat Klaus Bachler (#911 Pure Rxcing Porsche), who had occupied top spot since the opening minutes.
Bachler was followed by the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG of Jules Gounon, whose time was 0.176s shy of Vanthoor's benchmark. Antonio Fuoco continued Ferrari's strong start to the event by placing fourth in the #71 AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors entry.
Bachler ensured that Pure Rxcing was the best of the Bronze Cup squads, while Dennis Lind was P6 overall and the top Pro-Am outfit in the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini.
Gold Cup honours went to the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Phillip Ellis in P9 overall. The best Silver Cup entrant was AF Corse, with Lilou Wadoux placing 32nd overall in the #53 Ferrari.
The session featured two red flags. The first followed a spin into the gravel for the #24 Car Collection Motorsport Porsche of Niki Leutwiler, who was fortunate not to make contact with the barriers. The second was a routine stoppage to clear gravel and an errant cone from the circuit.
Cars will be back on-track at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from 13:25 CEST, with another 90 minutes of running scheduled during Pre-Qualifying.
