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Ferrari Quickest in Free Practice at Spa

Ferrari factory drivers quickest in 24H Spa Free Practice…

Photo: Marcel ten Caat

Photo: Marcel ten Caat

Toni Vilander posted the quickest time in Free Practice for the Total 24 Hours of Spa, with eight different brands represented in the top-ten.

The Ferrari factory driver ran a best lap of 2:20.300 in the No. 52 Pro Am Cup-entered Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, 0.048s in front of the sister No. 47 car of Gianmaria Bruni.

Augusto Farfus was one of the first drivers to put in a fast time in the No. 45 Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3, with the car ending up in P3 after 90 minutes.

The No. 18 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and No. 84 HTP Bentley Continental GT3 rounded out the top five, with the Emil Frey Jaguar G3 somewhat surprisingly in sixth (0.462s).

A spin of Christophe Bourret in the No. 10 Akka ASP Ferrari at Blanchimont brought out the red flag halfway through the session.

Kevin Estre had an off in the No. 58 McLaren 650S GT3 exiting turn nine, while he was able to return to the pits, the car remained in its box for the session.

Contact between the No. 111 Kessel Racing Ferrari and No. 888 BMW, caused suspension damage on the latter car.

Several drivers were reprimanded for not respecting the track limits, almost exclusively on top of the Raidillon.

Eight cars got a stop-and-go penalty from race control, with the second placed No. 47 Ferrari even receiving two of those. The penalties were carried out during the session and don’t have any consequences for the race.

Race control has announced it will be even more strict in Pre Qualifying, and will only give one warning before imposing a penalty.

Vincent Wouters (@VinceWouters) is a Belgium-based sports car racing reporter, providing coverage primarily of the Blancpain GT Series.

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