GT3 Europe

Sainteloc Racing Audi quickest in GT3 practice

© Tom De Jonghe

Dino Lunardi was the quickest driver on a hot Paul Ricard circuit today in the FIA GT3 European Championship practice sessions. The nr 15 Sainteloc Racing Audi R18 LMS topped the timing sheets in the second practice session.

In the first session it was the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo of Albert von Thurn und Taxis that set the fastest lap time, the German put in a 2:09.307. Just 0.023 seconds behind was the Prospeed Competition Porsche of Maxime Soulet, with the MTECH Ferrari of Matt Griffin third fastest at 0.294 seconds. The session was red flagged just three minutes before the official end and was not restarted.

Later in the day, but still in the same warm conditions, the cars went out fort heir second session. In this session it was Lunardi setting the fastest lap time. His time of 2:08.155 was over a second quicker than the fastest times in the first free practice session, but just over 0.073 seconds quicker than the Graff Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Mike Parisy. The Team LMP Motorsport Aston Martin of Maxime Martin was third fastest at 0.262 seconds from the Audi.

© Tom De Jonghe

The MTECH Ferrari and nr 25 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini did not take part in the session, which was interrupted by a red flag as the nr 4 Graff Racing Mercedes-Benz came to a halt on the track with a flat tyre. After the session was restarted the nr 14 Fischer Racing Ford GT hit trouble and was first reported as having had a spin. This message was followed by a message that it was losing parts, then losing the rear flat bottom at turn 12, before being caught making a strange noise. The car finished the session in 26th position.