Gounon Fastest in Brands Hatch Free Practice

Jules Gounon set the pace in the Free Practice session for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup opener at Brands Hatch.

The Andorran driver steered the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a best lap of 1:22.956 to narrowly beat the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Ben Green.

Green put in a flyer in the closing minutes of the session to leap from tenth to second place, only falling short of Gounon’s best effort by 0.002 seconds.

In the process, Green dropped stablemate Thierry Vermeulen, aboard the No. 69 Ferrari, to third place.

Dries Vanthoor came fourth aboard the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, ahead of Garage 59’s Tom Gamble and the No. 25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in the hands of Gilles Magnus.

Maro Engel took seventh in the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG he shares with Lucas Auer, while the pair of Tresor Attempto Racing Audis of Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase picked up eighth and ninth.

Thomas Fleming rounded out the top ten in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, but also caused one of two red flags across the 60-minute session on Saturday morning.

Fleming lost control of the car exiting Westfield Bend and ran onto the damp grass, spinning into the barriers at Dingle Dell with 17 minutes remaining on the clock.

An earlier red flag was triggered by Valentino Rossi, who lost control of his car exiting Dingle Dell Corner and made light contact with the barrier approaching Stirling’s.

The No. 46 Team WRT BMW, which Rossi shares with fellow factory driver and FIA World Endurance Championship co-driver Maxime Martin, is a guest entry for this weekend.

Track action a Brands Hatch continues with Pre-Qualifying at 11:55 a.m. BST (6:55 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice