Murphy Quickest, Race Performance Crashes in Afternoon Test

Race Performance’s Paul Ricard test was cut short when Michel Frey crashed the No. 34 Oreca 03 Judd as he head onto the Mistral straight. Frey was able to get out of the car and walk unaided, but was taken to the medical center for a check-up.

“This is not really what we expected. We’re going to put everything in place to be at the start in Silverstone. This will not be easy,” said Frey’s teammate Franck Mailleux. “The most important thing is that Michel is OK.”

Murphy Prototypes topped the afternoon session with its No. 48 Oreca 03 Nissan. GP2 race winner Nathaniel Berthon was the fastest driver in the second session, lapping the Le Castellet circuit in 1:48.342.

Berthon’s time was four tenths quicker than Christian Klien’s fastest time in the morning session, the Austrian ending the afternoon in second position. The No. 50 Larbre Competition Morgan Judd completed the top three.

In GTE it was the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Matt Griffin on top again. With a time of 1:55.917 the Irish driver was a tenth of a second faster than Daniel Zampieri in the No. 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia.

Dimitris Deverikos crashed the No. 75 ProSpeed Porsche during the session, causing substantial damage to the front of the 997 GT3 RSR.

SMP Racing ended the afternoon session first and second in GTC. Driving the No. 71 Ferrari Kyrill Ladygin was the fastest GTC driver with a time of 1:57.149.