Jean-Eric Vergne in #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson was fastest in today’s first free practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a 1:34.242.

The Frenchman set his quickest lap only minutes after the green flag was waved. By the end of the session, he was less than two tenths quicker than the #37 Cool Racing ORECA 07 Gibson (1:34.399) shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Antonin Borga and Alexandre Coigny. Third quickest was the #20 High Class Racing ORECA 07 Gibson driven by Anders Fjordbach and Dennis Andersen.

The championship (and session) leading car, the #26, stayed at the top of the time charts throughout the session.

The Russian-flagged team’s closest rival in the points tally, the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA 07 Gibson shared by Paul-Loup Chatin, Paul Lafargue and Memo Rojas, had a quiet run. The trio ended in 16th position, over two seconds behind the class-leading car with a 1:36.468.

The fastest of the other P2 chassis was the #45 Carlin Dallara P217 Gibson, which managed a 1:34.860 to slot in fifth while the first Ligier JSP217 was the #32 United Autosport in sixth (1:34.960).

Meanwhile, in LMP3, the championship-leading #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P3 driven by Mikkel Jensen and Jens Petersen set fastest lap, a 1:41.486, some 1.3 seconds clear of the #10 Oregon Team Norma M30 shared by Damiano Fioravanti, Gustas Grinbergas and Lorenzo Bontempelli.

Multiple cars didn’t take part in the session, the #2 and the #3 United Autosports, as well as the #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier JSP3s.

In the LMGTE class, the #60 Kessel Racing Ferrari F488 GTE Eve shared by Claudio Schiavoni, Sertgio Pianezzola and Andrea Piccini was quickest (1:44.721). The #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Edigio Perfetti, David Heinemeier Hanson and Jorg Bergmeister was second fastestfive-tenthshs behind the class leading car (1:45.238).

The championship leaders, the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR finished in third place (1:45.315) but did have an off while driven by Ricardo Perra.

Although there were very few incidents during the session, two red flag episodes occurred: the first one only minutes after the green light (debris on track) while the second one was waved just four minutes before the end of the session (Ben Hanley in the #21 Dragonspeed ORECA 07 Gibson off at Turn 4). The session did not resume.

Next up for the ELMS runners is the second practice session held tonight at 21:30 pm local time.

FREE PRACTICE 1 TIMES >>