The first day of competition of the Sprint Cup in Misano has been drawn with the brushes of Audi. In fact, Saintéloc Racing’s #25 has set the tone both in the morning breaks and in pre-qualifying. In general terms, the pace of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II has been very positive and the cars of the Ingolstadt firm are postulated as great favorites for pole positions. Nevertheless, the push of the Audi #32 of the leaders Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor has obtained a response from the drivers of the Mercedes #89.
The Audi #25 of Saintéloc Racing has been the great protagonist of the day in Misano. In the first free practice session, Aurélien Panis took the #25 to the top of the time table with a time of 1:31.625. A record that arrived in the first minutes of the session and that nobody managed to overcome during the 80 minutes of training. With six Audis in the top ten, the ‘discordant’ note was put by the #89 Mercedes with a Raffaele Marciello who stayed 27 thousandths of Panis.
Behind the Audi #25 and the Mercedes #89 were the Audi #11, as well as the #32 and #30, these last two from Team WRT. A little step behind was the #54 Porsche, as well as the #53 Ferrari. The session passed with certain normality, although the Lamborghini #888 of the LP Racing team, one of the novelties on the grid, caused a yellow flag after having a spin at turn 13. All in all, the only interruption in free practice was due to an exit from the track by Thomas Drouet’s #87 Mercedes.
Already in pre-classification, the dominance of the Audi has been even more intense. The #25 Audi finished at the top of the time table again, although in this case the 1:31.694 was the work of Patric Niederhauser. A little more than a tenth behind was Dries Vanthoor with the #32 Audi, thus responding in some way to the good work of the #89 Mercedes in free practice. The car of the leaders was part of the 1-2-3-4 of the Audi GT3since the #11 and #12 of Car Collection completed the first four positions.
LP Racing managed to leave its mark before its public with the Lamborghini #888 after finishing in fifth position at the hands of Jonny Cecotto, also achieving the leadership among the GT3 of the Silver Cup after narrowly beating the Ferrari #53 of AF Corse. For its part, JP Motorsport’s #111 McLaren has set the standard in Pro-Am in a session that has passed without notable incidents, which has allowed drivers and teams to refine the settings of their cars.
Photos: GT World Challenge Europe