WRT Tops Friday Free Practice in Moscow

Photo: Vincent Wouters

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT ended Friday on top of the time charts in Moscow, following a pair of Free Practice sessions in preparation for tomorrow’s Blancpain Sprint Series round.

The No. 1 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Laurens Vanthoor set the pace, reeling off a best time of 1:37.501 early in the afternoon’s second 80-minute session.

It wasn’t clear sailing for the defending Blancpain GT Series champion, though, as Vanthoor crashed his Audi in the closing moments of the final session, just after taking over from co-driver Robin Frijns.

The Belgian was uninjured in the single-car incident, with the car only appearing to have sustained light to moderate damage with its brush against the barriers.

A late improvement by Christopher Mies saw WRT end the day 1-2 on the time charts, thanks to the German’s 1:37.580 lap time in the No. 2 Audi.

The No. 0 BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil BMW Z4 GT3, driven by Caca Bueno and Sergio Jimenez, completed the top-three overall and in the Pro Cup class on Friday.

A 1:38.020 lap set by Norbert Siedler in the closing minutes of FP1 was good enough for fifth quickest overall, despite his Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 not improving in the final session.

The No. 88 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX of Nick Catsburg, which led the majority of the first session, ended the day fourth quickest.

Pro-Am Cup was led by the No. 71 GT Russian Team Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, thanks to a 1:38.494 lap set by Marko Asmer in the opening session.

The day’s only red flag came out early in the second session for the sister No. 71 GT Russian Team Mercedes of Alexey Karachev, who made contact with the barriers in Turn 9.

Saturday’s track action gets underway at 9 a.m. local with qualifying, followed by the Qualifying Race (1 p.m.) and Main Race (4 p.m.) to cap off the compact two-day event.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1
RESULTS: Free Practice 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John