Orange 1 FFF Racing Team led the way in Friday morning’s opening Free Practice session for the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe round at the Nürburgring.

Marco Mapelli posted a best time of 1:55.712 in the Chinese-Italian team’s No. 563 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo that he shares with team owner Andrea Caldarelli.

It came towards the end of an 80-minute session that was interrupted with red flags twice, and reserved, as usual, for Bronze and Silver drivers for the first half.

AKKA ASP placed second with its lead Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Vincent Abril and Raffaele Marciello, whose time was 0.062 seconds down on Mapelli’s.

They were followed on the time sheets by five Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos, including three Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entries and one each from Sainteloc Racing and Attempto Racing.

WRT’s No. 10 car, driven by Oscar Tunjo and Rik Breukers, was the best-placed Silver Cup entry in fifth overall, while AKKA ASP’s Jim Pla and Jean-Luc Beaubelique led the Pro-Am Cup from 20th.

Kessel Racing’s new Am Cup pairing of Rory Penttinen and Stephen Earle led the way in the two-car Am Cup class ahead of full-season entrants Wolfgang Triller and Florian Scholze.

The session’s two red flag periods, which each lasted for around ten minutes, were called to retrieve Aaro Vainio’s R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and Stephane Ortelli’s Sainteloc Racing Audi.

Free Practice 2 is set for 2:35 p.m. local time (8:35 a.m. EDT) and will offer another 80 minutes of running.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1