Marciello Leads Three of Four Test Sessions at Paul Ricard

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

2018 series champion Raffaele Marciello set the fastest time in three of the four sessions at Thursday and Friday’s GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS pre-season test at Circuit Paul Ricard.

The AKKA ASP driver’s best time of the test was a 1:53.417 set on Friday afternoon after also posting the fastest time in both of Thursday’s sessions.

He was denied a clean sweep of the test by HTP-Winward Motorsport, which led the way in Friday afternoon’s final four-hour session with a late flier. 

Marciello’s runs were set in the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, while HTP-Winward ran with a previous-gen Mercedes.

Elsewhere towards the top of the timesheets, GPX Racing was consistently quick with its Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, while Marco Bonanomi also set a strong time in the factory-entered Honda NSX GT3 Evo.

CMR and Emil Frey Racing showed well on their series returns, using Bentley and Lamborghini machinery, while new Silver Cup entrant Madpanda Motorsport also proved strong pace, along with series front-runner Black Falcon.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.