The 2024 Fanatec GT Europe finale is up and running following a busy day of activity at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
A pair of 90-minute Official Test Sessions took place at 14:15 and 17:15, giving drivers their first taste of the ultra-fast track. The second got underway shortly after sunset, providing an important opportunity to run in darkness ahead of Saturday's six-hour contest.
Tresor Attempto Racing led the way in the first outing thanks to a 2m00.747s lap from Christopher Haase. The German ace was 0.331s quicker than Loek Hartog (#97 Rutronik Racing Porsche) and a further two tenths clear of Bastian Buus (#80 Lionspeed GP Porsche) when the chequered flag flew.
Boutsen VDS hit the front in the second session thanks to Thomas Drouet, who circulated in 1m59.489s aboard the #9 Mercedes-AMG. Notably, the Frenchman set the first – and thus far only – lap under the two-minute mark.
The same pair of Porsches that impressed in the opening session remained at the front for the second outing. This time it was the #80 of Buus that occupied second spot, 0.552s shy of Drouet's benchmark, with Dennis Marschall taking P3 aboard the #97 machine.
A packed Thursday concluded with the Bronze Test, which began at 20:45 and brought 15 cars out for one hour of running. Sky Tempesta Racing led the way with Jonathan Hui at the controls of the #93 Ferrari. The Hong Kong racer set a 2m01.299s lap to edge the familiar Porsche duo of Rutronik Racing and Lionspeed GP, with Dustin Blattner and Michael Verhagen the respective drivers on this occasion.
There were a handful of red flags across the sessions. Notably, both the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter and #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin entries suffered significant damage after crashing in the first run, though both are expected to participate tomorrow. The Bronze Test ran without interruption until the closing minutes when the #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin hit the wall at Turn 3.
Track activity ramps up tomorrow with Free Practice at 15:30 and Pre-Qualifying at 20:15, both of which will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel. The action culminates on Saturday with Qualifying at 11:45 and the Jeddah GT Race at 17:00.
RESULTS
> Official Test Session 1
> Official Test Session 2
> Bronze Test