Lopez Fastest in Opening Paul Ricard Practice

Jose Maria Lopez led a Cool Racing 1-2 by setting the fastest time in the opening Free Practice session for the second European Le Mans Series round at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Lopez steered the No. 47 Cool Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to a best lap of 1:43.030, outpacing the No. 37 sister car of Malthe Jakobsen by 0.906 seconds.

The two cars from the Swiss squad locked out the top two, while Jakobsen also topped the LMP2 Pro-Am standings.

Job van Uitert completed the top three for Panis Racing, ahead of AF Corse’s Matthieu Vaxiviere and the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca in the hands of Oliver Jarvis.

The ELMS returns to action this weekend for the first time since April’s season opener in Barcelona.

The series went on a multi-month hiatus after its planned second round at Imola was postponed and then replaced by a Portimao double header due to delayed track upgrades to the Italian venue.

Mathias Beche took sixth aboard the No. 24 Nielsen Racing machine, completing the Pro-Am top three as Algarve Pro Racing’s Tristan Vautier slotted into seventh place.

The overall top ten was rounded out by IDEC Sport, the No. 25 Algarve Pro Oreca driven by Alex Lynn and Inter Europol Competition’s Olli Caldwell.

The Polish-flagged squad set the pace in LMP3, with Kai Askey reeling off a 1:50.142 aboard the No. 13 Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

The American driver went 0.103 seconds quicker than Cool Racing’s Marcos Siebert as Antoine Doquin took third for Racing Spirit of Leman.

The No. 44 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR led GTE in the hands of Nicki Thiim. Matt Griffin and Matteo Cressoni came second and third for Spirit of Race and Iron Lynx, respectively.

The second Free Practice session for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet takes place at 10:10 a.m. CEST (4:10 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1