24 Hours of Spa – Audi, Mercedes and BMW in a close match during free practice

Three cars in 38 thousandths finished the session in the first three places in the first free practice session of the 24 Spa 2018 Hours, counting towards the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

The No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT29 – Land Motorsport, entrusted to Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde and Jeffrey Schmidt was the fastest in 2'20″865 (directed by Kelvin van der Linde), in an already high ambient heat with 33° in the air at the end of this morning in Spa.

Let's hear from Audi Sport driver @KelvinvdLinde, who set the fastest time (2m 20.865s) in the opening @24HoursofSpa free practice session with the #29 Audi R8 LMS from Montaplast by Land-Motorsport. # GT3 #Spa24h #LeagueofPerformance pic.twitter.com/E2V83GsDPo

- Audi Sport (@audisport) July 26, 2018

The trio precedes the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°84 – Mann Filter by Renger van der Zande – Gary Paffett – Edoardo Mortara and by 38 thousandths the BMW M6 GT3 n°34 – Walkenhorst Motorsport by Philipp Eng – Christian Krognes – Tom Blomqvist.

These three top cars, however, remain slower than during the same session twelve months earlier, the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT63 – GRT having clocked 2'20″406. 

Winner last year, the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 – Saintéloc Racing de Haase – Winkelhock – Vervisch climbs to 4th place at 0″157. Follows the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Black Falcon of Engel – Buurman – Stolz and the first Lamborghini Huracan GT3, the n°28 – Lazarus of Santamato – Gattuso – Pohler – Crestani, dominator in the Silver Cup category.

The Bentley Continental GT3 n°8 – Team M-Sport d’Abril – Soucek – Soulet termine 7e à près de six dixièmes devant la première Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 n°62 – R-Motorsport by Baumann – Martin – Kirchhöfer.

La Ferrari 488 GT3 n°53 – AF Corse de Hommerson – Machiels – Cioci – Bertolini took ninth place and dominated in Pro-Am. The top 10 is completed by the second Aston Martin – R-Motorsport n°76 of Vaxivière – Dennis – Thiim.

In the Am Cup, AKKA ASP set the best time with the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT89 of Debard – Barthez – Jamin – Giauque. Note that the session was interrupted under a red flag, after the exit at Blanchimont of the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT6 – Black Falcon.

Pre-qualifying will begin at 18:10 p.m. in Belgium, before qualifying scheduled for 20:50 p.m.

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