Jules Gounon put Boutsen VDS on top in Friday afternoon's Free Practice at Magny-Cours. The Mercedes-AMG factory driver edged the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche by 0.009s to cap a fine showing from the Belgian squad, which also led the way in the Silver Cup class.
Gounon's benchmark time – a 1m37.374s – came during the final 20 minutes of the 80-minute session, with Patric Niederhauser his closest challenger at the wheel of the #96 Porsche. Dan Harper was third overall and paced the Bronze Cup class in the #991 Century Motorsport BMW, circulating in 1m37.394s.
Harper led a trio of Bronze cars with the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche (Dennis Marschall) and the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini (Sandy Mitchell) placing fourth and fifth overall in Free Practice. Alex Aka was sixth overall after topping the early phase of the session aboard the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.
The #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG was seventh overall and led the Silver Cup thanks to a 1m37.738s from Aurélien Panis. This was a standout performance from the Frenchman, with the next Silver car seven places further back in P14. Eighth overall went to the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, while the similar Saintéloc Racing machine was ninth and paced the Gold Cup class. Gilles Magnus produced the lap, a 1m37.778s, at the wheel of the #25 Audi.
The session was stopped very briefly by a car finding the gravel, though it was on its way back to the pits almost as soon as the red flag was thrown. Aside from this, running was uninterrupted and the 32-car field was able to complete significant work.
Cars will be back on-track this evening at 20:15 CEST for Pre-Qualifying. Live coverage begins tomorrow, with Qualifying 1 scheduled for 14:25 and Race 1 running shortly before sunset at 20:15.
> Result: Free Practice, Magny-Cours 2024