Arthur Rougier paced paid testing ahead of the centenary CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. The #111 CSA Racing Audi posted a 2m15.748s to lead a 63-car field in the three-hour pre-event session.
Jules Gounon came close to bettering him with a time of 2m15.768s in the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry. The Porsches of Ayhancan Güven (#22 Schumacher CLRT) and Joel Eriksson (#23 Phantom Global Racing) were next, with Daniel Morad rounding out the top five in the #48 Mercedes-AMG Mann-Filer machine. All of these drivers were also in the 2m15s.
The recent resurfacing work at Spa-Francorchamps has clearly made a significant difference: Rougier's lap was more than a second faster than the benchmark time in last year's Superpole session, with further improvement very likely over the remainder of the event.
The #111 Audi is competing for Gold Cup honours at this year's race and was comfortably fastest in the class, followed by the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi in P10 overall. Jordan Love was P12 and led the Pro-Am runners aboard the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG.
Rinaldi Racing topped the Bronze Cup class with its #333 Ferrari. Fabrizio Crestani was at the wheel to set a time good enough for 15th on the overall classification. The best of the Silver Cup runners was Cesar Gazeau at the wheel of the #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG in 24th spot.
There were a handful of stoppages during the session, though none resulted in a major delay to proceedings. While 63 cars participated in paid testing, a field of 66 will tackle this weekend's race. The grid was reduced by one today after Iron Dames withdrew its #83 Lamborghini due to injury to driver Sarah Bovy.
Track activity takes a break tomorrow, when attention will switch to the traditional parade to Spa city centre. This is scheduled to set off from the circuit at 16:30, taking a special route that includes parts of the old Spa track and arriving in town at around 17:40.
Thursday sees significant action with Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying, Qualifying and Night Practice all set to run. Superpole and the Warm-Up follow on Friday, building up to the main event at 16:30 on Saturday afternoon.
TRACK TIMETABLE (CEST)
THURSDAY 27 JUNE
11.20–12.50: Free Practice
16.30–17.30: Pre-Qualifying
20.35–21:55: Qualifying
22.25–23.55: Night Practice
FRIDAY 28 JUNE
15:45–16.15: Superpole
20:10–20.40: Warm-Up
SATURDAY 29 JUNE
16.30: Centenary Race Start
SUNDAY 30 JUNE
16.30: Centenary Race Finish