Milesi Quickest in Red-Flagged, Extended Mugello FP1

Charles Milesi set the fastest time in the opening Free Practice session for the European Le Mans Series’ 4 Hours of Mugello.

The Alpine Hypercar driver steered the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to a best lap of 1:34.687, outpacing IDEC Sport’s Reshad de Gerus by 0.333 seconds.

Paul Di Resta came third for United Autosports, just 0.006 seconds behind De Gerus.

The overall top five was completed by the No. 20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Alex Quinn and AO by TF’s Louis Deletraz, with the former leading the Pro-Am ranks in the process.

Matteo Cairoli slotted into sixth aboard the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton entry, ahead of DKR Engineering’s Cem Bolukbasi and the second Algarve Pro Racing Oreca in the hands of Alex Lynn.

The No. 34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca and the No. 10 Vector Sport machine rounded out the top ten.

All competitive times were set in the opening hour of the session, after which the arrival of rain made further improvements impossible.

The session was also extended by ten minutes as the result of an early red flag triggered by the No. 19 Team Virage Oreca driven by Tristan Vautier.

A left front suspension failure caused the Frenchman to make impact the barriers at Turns 4 and 5, which halted the session as barrier repairs were required.

The No. 19 car took no further part in the session. The car has a revised lineup for this weekend, with Vautier joined by Bronze-rated driver Georgios Kolovos and Raphael Narac.

Narac, 19, is the son of two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Raymond Narac.

In LMP3, Manuel Espirito Santo led for Cool Racing, setting a 1:42.337 aboard the No. 17 Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Ferrari led the top three position in the LMGT3 class, spearheaded by Daniel Serra’s No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

The Brazilian’s 1:46.583 was 0.072 seconds quicker than fellow Ferrari factory driver Nicklas Nielsen in the No. 50 Formula Racing entry, while Nico Varrone picked up third for AF Corse.

The second Free Practice session at Mugello is scheduled for Saturday at 9:40 a.m. CEST (3:40 a.m. EDT).