Gustavo Menezes was the fastest driver in Free Practice 2 on Saturday ahead of the Four Hours of Buriram, putting Jackie Chan DC Racing into the top spot.
A best lap time of 1:27.446 was enough to put the No. 35 Oreca 03R Nissan that he shares with Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent ahead of Algarve Pro Racing’s No. 25 Ligier JS P2 Nissan by 0.165 seconds.
Andrea Pizzitola was the fastest driver in the No. 25 Ligier, with Fabien Schiller and Tacksung Kim setting the fastest times in the other LMP2 entries; the No. 8 Race Performance Oreca 03R Judd and No. 24 Algarve Pro Ligier JS P2 Judd.
Menezes’ class-leading time was eight-tenths faster than Friday’s leading time, which was set by Struan Moore in the Race Performance entry.
It was Nigel Moore with a time of 1:30.175 in the No. 26 Ligier JS P3 Nissan who set the pace in LMP3, with the Tockwith Motorsports team having shipped a new chassis in overnight following a testing crash that resulted in a no-show from the team in Friday’s practice session.
James Winslow put the Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier into second in class, 0.272 seconds behind Moore, while Riki Christodoulou secured the third place spot for Ayelzo Ecotint Racing in the highest-placed Ginetta LMP3.
Team AAI went one better than Friday, putting the two BMW M6 GT3s into first and second in the GT class.
Tom Blomqvist was the fastest driver in the class, setting a time of 1:32.348 in the No. 90 car, while Phillipp Eng was just 0.144 seconds slower in the sister No. 91 car.
A string of Ferrari 488 GT3s was next on the timesheets, with the cars of Spirit of Race, DH Racing, Team BBT and Clearwater Racing completing the top-seven.
Qualifying for Sunday’s race gets underway at 3:40 p.m. local time on Saturday.
RESULTS: Free Practice 2