Jules Gounon left it late to put Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing on top in Free Practice 1 at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The French ace set his benchmark time of 1m54.690s during the final few minutes of the 90-minute run, edging the #3 Mercedes-AMG in front of Eastalent Racing's #84 Audi. Christopher Haase had been on top for much of the session but was ultimately beaten by 0.064s.
Max Hofer was P3 overall and best of the Silver Cup runners in the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche. The Austrian was followed by another class leader – and another Porsche driver – with the impressive debutant Benjamin Paque doing a fine job in the #914 Razoon machine. The best Gold Cup car was the #4 Optimum Motorsport McLaren in P8 overall, driven by Adam Smalley.
There were no incidents of note during the session, which saw 56 cars on-track. Next up is Free Practice 2, which runs during sunset from 19:25.