Weerts puts Team WRT Audi on top in opening practice at Misano

Weerts puts Team WRT Audi on top in opening practice at Misano

Charles Weerts put the #32 Team WRT Audi on top in Friday's opening free practice session at Misano. 

The Belgian was a double winner at the Italian track last term alongside teammate Dries Vanthoor, a result that kicked off their successful title campaign. Having already topped Thursday's official test session, Weerts continued the squad's fine form with a benchmark time of 1m32.403s. 

The first half of the session was reserved for bronze and silver graded competitors, though this only prevented three cars from playing a part. Weerts was quickest after 40 minutes, followed by Rik Breukers (#90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG) and Leo Roussel (#25 Saintéloc Racing Audi). 

Thereafter the track was open to all takers, though there was little change at the top of the order as the #32 Audi and the #90 Mercedes-AMG remained first and second until the chequered flag, the latter also topping the Silver Cup class.  Kelvin van der Linde moved into third position at the wheel of the #30 Team WRT Audi, followed by the #25 and #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi entries. 

The best non-German machine was the #38 JOTA McLaren, one of the few cars absent for the first half of the session, which went sixth thanks to Ben Barnicoat. Henrique Chaves (#77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini) was ninth-quickest, the best of the Pro-Am runners. Practice was run in high mid-day temperatures, with the mercury rising to just under 30°C. It was, however, almost entirely free of incident, with no stoppages during the 80 minutes. Full session times can be viewed here

Preparations continue this afternoon with Pre-Qualifying at 17:00. Qualifying 1 takes place at 09:45 on Saturday morning and will set the grid for Race 1 at 15:00. The same format will be repeated on Sunday, with Qualifying 2 at 09:00 and Race 2 at 14:00. All of the action will be streamed live across the series' social media platforms and the GT World YouTube channel.