Van der Linde Tops Free Practice for Audi at Spa

Photo: SRO

Kelvin van der Linde led the way in Free Practice for this weekend’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, putting Audi and Team WRT atop the time sheets in the opening 90-minute session at Spa-Francorchamps.

The South African took his No. 32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo to a best lap of 2:19.037 early in the session to edge out the No. 22 GPX Martini Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matt Campbell by 0.291 seconds.

Van der Linde is sharing driving duties with his Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup co-drivers Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor.

The Raffaele Marciello-driven No. 88 Team AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo made it three different manufacturers in the top-three in the session, which ran without any major incidents.

Dinamic Motorsport’s No. 54 Porsche was fourth on the overall time sheets followed by the best of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evos, the No. 63 Orange 1 FFF Racing Team entry in fifth.

The No. 7 Toksport WRT Mercedes led the way in the Silver class with the sixth quickest time overall while Pro-Am class honors was paced by the No. 69 Ram Racing Mercedes in ninth.

All 58 entries turned laps in the session, which was run in dry conditions.

Pre-Qualifying is set to get underway at 3:45 p.m. local time followed by qualifying and night practice this evening.

RESULTS: Free Practice

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John