The penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe, last in the sprint of this 2021, has started in Valencia with the dispute of the only free practice session of the weekend. Then drivers and teams have had the opportunity to get back on track for pre-qualification, with the same essence and different name than the previous training session, since both sessions offer 90 minutes of work on the track. With this in mind, Raffaele Marciello and Ben Barnicoat have been the first protagonists in Cheste by setting the tone in each session with the # 88 Mercedes and the # 38 McLaren respectively.
The action began with the free practice sessions, although the first half of it was reserved for the GT3 with ‘Bronze’ and ‘Silver’ drivers. Charles Weerts was the fastest driver in this phase of training, although his best time was in nothing once the rest of the pilots entered into action. In fact, Raffaele Marciello jumped to the top of the times table with a time of 1: 32.256, record that no one could achieve. The Mercedes # 88 was thus in the front of the classification ahead of the own Audi # 32 of Weerts. For its part, the third position was for the Mercedes # 90, leader in the Silver Cup.
With almost no time for rest, the Sprint Cup GT3s were roaring again on the asphalt of Cheste for the pre-qualifying session. A training session that ended with Ben Barnicoat as the fastest driver after setting a time of 1: 32.611 with the McLaren # 38. The Brit was 136 thousandths faster than Dries Vanthoor, this time in charge of placing the Audi # 32 in second position. For its part, Jules Gounon’s Mercedes # 89 took third place ahead of Porsche # 54. The ‘top 5’ was closed by Christopher Haase at the wheel of the Audi # 25 of the French team Saintéloc Racing.
With four brands in the ‘top 5’ and four cars separated by 289 thousandths, it can be said that equality has been maximum. Beyond this point, the leadership within the session within the Pro-Am category has been for the Aston Martin # 188 from Garage 59 thanks to Jonny Adam’s best lap. For its part, the best GT3 of the Silver Cup has been Arthur Rougier’s Lamborghini # 114 in a session with a short red flag half an hour after its start by Robin Frijns’ spin with the Audi # 30 Team WRT at Turn 8 of the track.