The first two sessions of GTWC Europe in Barcelona are written in Mercedes code. Although the moments of real importance will not happen until Sunday, the GT3s of the Stuttgart firm have set a perfect Saturday in the last round of the Endurance Cup. In fact, Dominik Baumann’s Mercedes # 20 set the best time in the free practice session after signing the German driver a time of 1: 45.468. For its part, Raffaele Marciello has led the pre-qualifying with the Mercedes # 88, one of the GT3s involved in the fight for the Resistance Cup title.
Austrian Dominik Baumann was the fastest driver of the free practice session at the wheel of the Mercedes # 20 SPS Automotive after stopping the clock at 1: 45.468. A sufficient record to beat Felipe Fraga, driver of the Mercedes # 88 by 136 thousandths. Frenchman Simon Gachet was third with the Mercedes # 87, while the poker of the Stuttgart firm has been closed by Marvin Dienst with the Mercedes # 7 of the Toksport team. At more than six tenths the Lamborghini # 114 has been placed as the main alternative to the GT3 with which the star manufacturer competes.
The dynamics of the pre-qualification has not been very different, since Raffaele Marciello has set the standard with the Mercedes # 88 of the AKKA ASP team. The Italian driver has signed a time of 1: 46.510, a record with which he has surpassed by 149 thousandths another of the cars of the French team, the # 87 of Thomas Drouet. As if AKKA ASP’s double wasn’t enough, Jim Pla got the third position with the Mercedes # 7. A triplet that was built in the first 15 minutes of the session, at which time the track was in better condition.
Although most of the fast times have been concentrated in the first minutes of the session, Markus Winkelhock has broken this circumstance by placing the Audi # 26 to place himself in fourth position. A taste of the performance that the new can offer Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2, since this unit with number # 26 runs with an invitation entry since it is the new version of the GT3 from the Ingolstadt firm, yet to be homologated. For its part, the BMW M4 GT3 that is in Barcelona under the same situation has finished 36th hand in hand with the best lap of Jake Dennis.