Marciello Leads First Practice Session of Sprint Season

Raffaele Marciello set the fastest lap in the opening Free Practice session of the new Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season at Brands Hatch.

The Akkodis ASP driver steered the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a time of 1:22.511 in cloudy morning conditions, going almost seven-tenths of a second clear at the top of the 29-car leaderboard.

Christopher Mies ranked second in the No. 27 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II from Sainteloc Junior Team, ahead of Alex Aka in the Silver Cup-leading Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.

Gold and Platinum-rated drivers joined halfway into the session, after 30 minutes of reserved running for Silver competitors.

Marciello’s benchmark came shortly before one of two red flag periods, caused by Jesse Salmenautio spinning the Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG into the Paddock Hill gravel.

After an eight-minute cleanup, Free Practice resumed for a brief spell until another red flag occurred when Nicola Marinangelli spun his AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 exiting Sheene Curve.

At the end of an interrupted one-hour session, Frank Bird ended up fourth in the Silver-category Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG, while Boutsven VDS Audi driver Aurelien Panis Audi completed the top five and led Gold Cup in the process.

Thierry Vermeulen posted a time of 1:23.489 to put Emil Frey Racing’s new Ferrari 296 GT3 sixth overall, ahead of the Audis from Sainteloc’s No. 25 crew and Tresor Orange 1.

The highest-placed BMW M4 GT3 from Team WRT finished 12th in the order, around 1.2 seconds away from Marciello’s leading number.

Track action continues with Pre-Qualifying at 12:45 p.m. local time (7:45 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice