Boguslavskiy Leads Wet-to-Dry Nürburgring Free Practice

Timur Boguslavskiy went fastest in a wet-to-dry Free Practice session for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round at the Nürburgring.

The Akkodis ASP driver steered the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a time of 1:55.163 with just under 20 minutes left in the 90-minute Saturday morning session, which started on a damp and slippery track surface before a dry line emerged.

The transitioning conditions meant that several cars took turns to lead the 54-car field and saw the benchmark time go down by 14 seconds from the start to the end.

Slick Pirelli tires started to be fitted around half an hour into proceedings and the fastest lap soon dipped under the two-minute mark before being further reduced.

All three of the Akkodis ASP drivers — Boguslavskiy, Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello — spent time at the top but it was the former who ended up quickest overall.

Boguslavskiy beat the Gold Cup-leading Iron Lynx Lamborghini driver Leonardo Pulcini by 0.042 seconds, while Frederic Vervisch was third for Audi team Comtoyou Racing on a 1:55.387.

Vervisch’s No. 11 Comtoyou Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II then had a couple of off-track moments after spins for GT3 rookie Kobe Pauwels, who has been drafted into the Belgian team’s Pro lineup for the penultimate round of the Endurance Cup season.

There were multiple rotations and errors in the tricky conditions, including Dinamic GT by Car Collection driver Daniel di Amato who slid into the tire barriers at Turn 6 but managed to get the No. 56 Porsche 911 GT3 R going without needing a Full Course Yellow.

Winward Racing’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG went fourth overall courtesy of a 1:55.551 from Philip Ellis.

The Swiss driver’s teammate Marius Zug put Winward’s sister car in sixth, with the Attempto Racing-run Tresor Orange 1 Audi sitting in between.

K-PAX Racing’s Lamborghini was seventh after Sandy Mitchell led earlier on, followed by Mercedes-AMGs from GetSpeed and Silver Cup leader Madpanda Motorsport.

The best of the BMW M4 GT3s came through in 10th courtesy of ROWE Racing’s No. 998 entry that led both of Friday’s paid test sessions, however the German team’s points-leading No. 98 car only managed 40th overall.

Iron Dames set the pace in Bronze Cup as the Iron Lynx team topped two of the four classes outside of Pro. Fellow Lamborghini team Barwell Motorsport led Pro-Am.

Nürburgring track action continues with Pre-Qualifying at 12:25 p.m. (6:25 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice