Comtoyou Racing led an Audi Sport one-two-three in this morning's Free Practice session at Zandvoort.
The #11 crew of Christopher Haase and Lucas Légeret require a perfect weekend if they are to snatch the Sprint Cup title. Their quest began in ideal fashion, with Légeret posting a 1m34.937s late in proceedings to gap the field by almost four tenths.
The #11 Audi emerged on top from a hectic final 15 minutes. The session began on a wet track that gradually became drier, allowing for a consistent lowering of the benchmark time. As such the likes of Dries Vanthoor (#32 Team WRT BMW) and Raffaele Marciello had spells in P1, but were ultimately shuffled back during the closing minutes.
Ultimately its was Aurélien Panis (#9 Boutsen VDS Audi) who finished second fastest overall, while also leading the Gold Cup order. The Frenchman was followed by class rival Gilles Magnus (#21 Comtoyou Racing Audi) to complete an Audi sweep of the top three.
Albert Costa was fourth in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, followed by the one-off CLRT Porsche entry driven by Lauren Heinrich. The #46 and #32 Team WRT BMWs were sixth and seventh respectively.
Alex Aka led the Silver Cup order in 13th overall. The #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi driver leads the class standings alongside Lorenzo Patrese heading into the decisive weekend. Title rival Jordan Love was 16th in the #77 HRT Mercedes-AMG.
The session was stopped twice, a reasonable outcome given the treacherous conditions, with both incidents taking place at turn 13. The first was required when debutant Harley Haughton beached his #18 GSM AB1 Lamborghini, while the second followed an off for Alex Frassineti in the #68 Nova Race Honda.
The latter stoppage came with 90 seconds left on the clock, ending Free Practice a shade early. Cars will be back on-track at 15:20 CEST for Pre-Qualifying.
