Dries Vanthoor took Belgian Audi Club Team WRT to the top of the timesheets in the opening Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup session of the weekend at the Nürburgring.

The Belgian driver posted a best time of 1:54.581 soon after Free Practice 1 was opened up to the entire field, with the first half of the session reserved for Silver and Bronze-rated drivers.

WRT made it two of its Audi R8 LMS GT3s in the top three with its No. 1 car of Alex Riberas and Christopher Mies classifying third.

The pair are tied with Raffaele Marciello and Michael Meadows for the Sprint Cup championship lead heading into this weekend’s finale.

Grasser Racing Team held second position with its No. 19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Andrea Caldarelli and Ezequiel Perez Companc, meanwhile.

Black Falcon had the best-placed Silver Cup entry with its sole Mercedes-AMG GT3 in fifth overall while Rinaldi Racing was the best of the Pro-Am Cup field.

Rinaldi has entered one Ferrari 488 GT3 for this weekend only, driven by David Perel and Rinat Salikhov.

The field has reduced to 20 cars as Grasser withdrew its No. 82 car overnight, which was set to be driven by Franck Perera and Loris Hezemans.

Free Practice 2 will get underway at 2:35 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1