Sainteloc Racing’s Simon Gachet led the way in the first Free Practice session of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe finale weekend at the Hungaroring.

The Frenchman posted a best lap time of 1:43.563 early in Friday morning’s 80-minute session and his No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo remained on top for the remainder of track time.

Gachet and co-driver Christopher Haase are one of four driver pairings who could win the GT World Challenge Europe title this weekend.

As a Silver-rated driver, Gachet was able to use the full session with the first half, as usual, reserved for Silver and Bronze-rated drivers. His time remained quickest despite the session opening up to Platinum and Gold drivers for the final 40 minutes.

The session was ended five minutes early when Nick Foster’s Attempto Racing Audi stopped at the pit entry. The car didn’t appear to have any damage, however.

Two of AKKA ASP’s Mercedes-AMG GT3s placed second and third in the session, with its Silver Cup entry ahead of its Pro-Am car.

Those two cars therefore topped their respective classes. The Am Cup is back to a single-car field this weekend, consisting of full-season drivers Florian Scholze and Wolfgang Triller’s HB Racing Ferrari 488 GT3.

Of the other title contenders, Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart were classified fourth, while Maro Engel and Luca Stolz were down in 15th and points leaders Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli 23rd.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1