Hanley Fastest in Twice Red-Flagged Silverstone FP1

Joint European Le Mans Series points leader Ben Hanley set the pace in a disjointed, twice red-flagged opening practice session for this weekend’s 4 Hours of Silverstone.

The No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson driver clocked a 1:44.964 in the opening half an hour of the session to finish up just a tenth of a second faster than Job van Uitert in the No. 28 IDEC Sport machine.

But it had been a messy session that ended up being extended by 15 minutes after first the No. 85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 Toyota LMP3 machine of Pierre-Alexandre Provost lost a wheel and then the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Bijoy Garg and the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Custodio Toledo collided at Becketts.

The sister No. 43 Inter Europol entry of Tom Dillmann was third quickest on a 1:45.105 while fourth was the second of the IDEC-run Orecas thanks to a 1:45.139 from Laurents Hoerr.

The other of the crews that arrived at Silverstone tied at the top of the LMP2 table, the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis machine, was sixth quickest courtesy of a 1:45.261 from Oliver Gray.

The LMP2 Pro-Am division was topped by Malthe Jakobsen aboard the No. 20 Algarve Pro Racing car car, which was seventh overall.

A tenth of a second was all that separated the top two LMP3 crews as well, with Louis Iglesias aboard the No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota posting a 1:54.037 to narrowly better the time of Matteo Quintarelli in the No. 8 Team Virage Ligier.

And the margins were similarly fine in LMGT3 as Tom Sargent set the pace aboard the No. 75 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with a 1:59.505 to finish up 0.04 seconds faster than Mathys Jaubert — who was one of the few drivers to post an improved time after the red flags — in the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari.

Lilou Wadoux was third quickest in the No. 50 Ferrari prior to Toledo’s incident, while Wayne Boyd was another to leap up the leaderboard in the final half hour as he climbed to fourth in the No. 23 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Charlie Eastwood’s performance aboard the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R ensured there were four different manufacturers represented in the top-five.

Several drivers were penalized for red-flag abuses, including Pietro Fittipaldi in the No. 10 Vector Sport Oreca, Chun-Ting Chen in the No. 13 Inter Europol LMP3 Ligier and PJ Hyett in the No. 99 Oreca.

The FIA-graded Bronze drivers will be back in action for a 30-minute test session at 4:15 p.m. BST (11:15 a.m. EST) before FP2 is then due to take place at 9:55 a.m. BST (4:55 a.m. EST) on Saturday.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1