Jota Quickest in Free Practice at Red Bull Ring

Courtesy of a fast lap set in Free Practice 1, Jota Sport remained the quickest overall in Saturday’s two European Le Mans Series 90-minute practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring.

Filipe Albuquerque pedaled the No. 38 Gibson 015S Nissan to a 1:23.538 in the morning session, which proved impossible to beat in the afternoon.

While Free Practice 1 was stopped momentarily for a heavy off by the No. 5 Villorba Corse Ginetta Nissan of Robert Lacorte, the afternoon session ended early due to a red flag for the No. 45 Ibanez Racing Oreca 03 Nissan of Ivan Bellarosa.

Also in the morning session, Gary Hirsch drove the No. 41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson 015S Nissan to what would be the second fastest time in LMP2, a 1:24.014.

Completing the top three was the No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Oreca 05 Nissan. Despite going quickest in Free Practice 2, driver Tristan Gommendy was unable to usurp their best Free Practice 1 time.

LMP3 was the only class to see improvements from the morning to the afternoon session.

The No. 2 Team LNT Ginetta Nissan of Charlie Robertson was able to beat Free Practice 1’s best LMP3 time, posting a 1:30.804.

In GTE, the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia of Raffaele Giammaria set the bar high in Free Practice 1, posting a 1:30.333.

The No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari of Matt Griffin was unable to beat the time in Free Practice 2 despite going quickest in that respective session.

The same trend of fastest times being set in Free Practice 1 carried over to GTC as well.

Francesco Castellacci drove his No. 62 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia GT3 to a session-winning 1:32.392 in Free Practice 2, but was unable to topple the No. 59 TDS Racing BMW Z4’s morning session time of a 1:32.236, set by Franck Perera.

Qualifying will begin at 9:15 a.m. local time tomorrow.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1
RESULTS: Free Practice 2