Akka ASP AMG & Attempto Audi Top Misano Free Practice
AKKA ASP led the opening practice session at Misano on Friday afternoon as Raffaele Marciello yet again demonstrated his speed behind the wheel of the #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The 2018 Sprint Cup champion posted his best time of 1:32.114s around the half-way mark of the 80-minute run, edging out the #31 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT machine of Ryuichiro Tomita. The Japanese driver is making his series debut this weekend and showed impressive pace to get within 0.238s of Misano specialist Marciello.
Third overall went to Andrea Bertolini, who also topped the Pro-Am class aboard the #52 AF Corse Ferrari. Bertolini was a further tenth down on the outright pace and just 0.036s clear of the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG of Silver Cup leader Jim Pla. A total of four Silver class cars finished among the overall top-10 in FP1, with the #15 Tech 1 Lexus, #33 WRT Audi and #26 Sainteloc Audi also showing strongly. Full session times can be viewed via the link at the bottom of this page.
The vast majority of the session ran without incident, only for a late red flag to end proceedings with three minutes left on the clock. This was caused by a fire aboard the #2 TokSport WRT Mercedes-AMG, though the driver was able to climb out calmly just as safety vehicles arrived on the scene. Earlier, track limits infringements had seen the #66 Attempto Racing Audi, #15 Tech 1 Lexus and #93 Sky Tempesta Ferrari all serve 10-minute stop-go penalties, while the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG had to do so twice.
Free Practice 2
Mattia Drudi led the way in this evening’s free practice 2 at Misano with a last-gasp effort at the wheel of his #55 Attempto Racing Audi. The local driver posted a 1:32.189s lap with barely a minute left to the clock to beat long-time leader Dries Vanthoor (#32 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT) by 0.047s.
Drudi headed an ultra-close 80-minute session, which saw the top-18 cars covered by less than a second and only half a second between the top 15. After the pace-setting Audis, the impressive Thomas Neubauer was third quickest in the #15 Tech 1 Racing Lexus, which also emerged as the best Silver Cup car.
Next came the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi, the #4 HRT Mercedes-AMG, the #107 CMR Bentley and the #26 Sainteloc Audi. The #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG shared by Timur Boguslavskiy and FP1 leader Raffaele Marciello could only manage eighth this evening.
As was the case in the earlier session, the Pro-Am class was topped by Andrea Bertolini. The Italian ace was 11th overall in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari he shares with Louis Machiels. Full session times can be viewed via the link at the bottom of this page.
Once again, several cars received penalties for repeatedly violating track limits. The #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG was the first to do so and duly took its third 10-minute stop-go of the day. Seven other cars were subject to the same punishment.
The only red flag was caused by the #90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Ezequiel Perez Companc, who made contact with the barriers at turn six. The car was fifth overall and fastest in the Silver Cup class at the time, but ultimately fell to the middle of the order. A total of 22 cars took part in the session, with the #2 TokSport WRT Mercedes-AMG now officially withdrawn from the event following a fire during FP1.
Action resumes tomorrow morning at 09.00 with an 80-minute pre-qualifying run. This will be the final preparation before a pair of qualifying sessions, which run back-to-back from 13.20. These will set the grids for the opening two races, the first of which begins at 19.15 and concludes just as the sun sets. At 09.00 on Sunday another qualifying session will run, establishing the grid for the weekend’s third race. Race two gets underway at 11.20, while the final contest starts at 15.00.
From Saturday afternoon’s qualifying onwards, all sessions will be streamed live on the GT World Challenge Europe website and Facebook pages, as well as the GT World YouTube channel.