> FP1: Result
TF Sport’s Nicki Thiim topped the opening session of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, whilst the Tolman Motorsport McLaren of Charlie Fagg led the way in GT4.
With sunny weather greeting the teams at the legendary Belgian venue, most cars hit the track as soon as the pitlane was open. It didn’t take long for the #11 Aston Martin in the hands of Thiim to set the pace, with a 2m19.561s becoming the benchmark that would not be beaten for the rest of the session.
The #75 Optimum Motorsport Aston Martin piloted by Jonny Adam got within 0.225s of Thiim’s time to end second quickest, whilst the second TF Sport Aston Martin driven by Marco Sorensen was third fastest, 0.856s down on his team-mate.
Phil Keen was fourth fastest in the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini, ahead of the #30 Ram Racing Mercedes of Tom Onslow-Cole. The top eight was rounded out by Beechdean’s Darren Turner, Team Parker Racing’s Ryan Ratcliffe and the Jetstream Motorsport Aston Martin of Maxime Martin.
It was a 1-2-3 in GT4 for Tolman Motorsport, with the McLaren of Charlie Fagg and Michael O’Brien setting the pace, edging out the #56 machine of David Pattison & Joe Osborne. Third place came courtesy of the #5 machine in the hands of Jordan Albert.
Fourth fastest, and the first of the non-McLarens, was Will Burns in the HHC Motorsport Ginetta with the fifth quickest time coming courtesy of the Invictus Games Racing #44 Jaguar driven by Matthew George.
The top-eight was completed by Mike Robinson in the Balfe Motorsport McLaren, the Team Parker Racing Mercedes of Scott Malvern and the #53 Nissan of Kelvin Fletcher & Martin Plowman.
The session was brought to a premature end with just under 10 minutes remaining on the clock following a sizeable crash for the #22 Jaguar of Basil Rawlinson at Raidillon. Rawlinson was taken to Verviers for precautionary checks and the Invictus Games Racing machine will not take any further part this weekend.
Free Practice 2 gets underway at Spa-Francorchamps at 11:30 local time.