Marciello keeps AKKA-Mercedes on top in second Hungaroring practice

Marciello keeps AKKA-Mercedes on top in second Hungaroring practice

Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup title contender Raffaele Marciello kept AKKA ASP Team on top during Friday’s second free practice session at the Hungaroring.

The Italian ace produced a lap of 1m43.333s aboard the #88 Mercedes-AMG he shares with Michael Meadows, beating the quickest time from this morning’s opening session by more than half a second. The duo enter this weekend’s event second in the Sprint Cup standings, 22 points shy of the championship lead.

Mercedes-AMG cars had locked out the top three positions in the session until Christopher Haase moved his Sainteloc-Audi into second spot with a lap just 0.044s shy of Marciello. Nico Bastian (AKKA-Mercedes) completed an impressive Friday showing in third – and as the top Silver Cup runner – having been P2 overall in the morning session.

The #90 Mercedes-AMG was closely followed by its class rival, the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes, which lapped well in the hands of Luca Stolz. The #751 Sun Energy 1 by AKKA ASP machine was fifth overall and the fastest Pro-Am runner, completing a tremendous afternoon’s work for the French squad.

The #2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT crew endured yet more frustration as they sat out FP2 following the problem that sidelined them during the first session. Dries Vanthoor and Will Stevens will thus enter tomorrow morning’s qualifying without any meaningful running in their R8 LMS.

The session was interrupted by a brief red flag when the #19 Grasser-Lamborghini stopped on track, but otherwise ran without incident. Proceedings will resume tomorrow morning with qualifying taking place at 09.40, followed by the opening race at 14.45. All of the action will be streamed live on the Blancpain GT Series website.