FIA GT3 Europe: Zolder Friday practice report

Sainteloc Racing Audis lockout top order in eventful Zolder Free Practice

#15 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS: Jerome Demay, Dino Lunardi

Photo by: xpb.cc

The Sainteloc Racing squad ruled the roost in an eventful Friday Free Practice at Zolder as the French squad's two Audis traded places at the top of the time sheets throughout the day.

The No.16 Audi R8 LMS of Marc Sourd and Gregory Guilvert, winners of Race One in the opening round of the season at Nogaro, set the fastest time of the day – 1:31.319 – in the afternoon session.

In the morning it was the No.15 of Jerome Demay and Dino Lunardi which led the way with a best lap of 1:32.358. They improved to 1:31.344 in the afternoon to be second overall.

Third fastest overall was the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gaetano Ardagna Perez (VEN) and Giuseppe Ciro (ITA) with a 1:32.420.

Hari Proczyk (AUT) and David Mengesdorf (DEU) in the Rhino’s Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 was fourth in a time of 1:32.615 just ahead of the second AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Italy’s Stefano Gai and Briton Michael Lyons.

The No.1 Mercedes of Maximilian Buhk caused a halt to the second session as the track surface grew increasingly greasy due to light rain. The German driver spun the Heico Gravity-Charouz Team Mercedes SLS AMG No.1 car on the kerb and into the tyre barrier at the last chicane.

The session was red-flagged for 10 minutes while the barrier was re-built. The car suffered extensive damage. The car had been running in fifth overall with a quickest lap time of 1:32.693.

The first outing for the Reiter Engineering Chevrolet Camaro came to a smokey end on the back straight in the afternoon session. The car shared by German duo Max Sandritter and Philip Geipel was inside the top six until Geipel stopped with oil pressure problems at Turn 14 with 15 minutes remaining.

“We had a sensor alert as the oil pressure went up. We have had some problems with faulty sensors in testing so we were unsure how big the problem was. It became worse as the (afternoon) session went on and we told Philip to stop the car,” team boss Hans Reiter explained.