The BMW M4 GT3 was the weapon of choice in Pre-Qualifying at Circuit Paul Ricard as the German marque locked out the top three positions.
British GT champion Dan Harper posted a 1m54.003s at the wheel of the #998 ROWE Racing entry to shade Charles Weerts (#32 Team WRT) by 0.089s, while Marco Wittmann completed the top three in the #98 ROWE machine. The brand is searching for its first win at the French track since 2013.
The best of the rest was Lucas Auer in the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER, which finished 0.334s adrift of top spot. Andrea Caldarelli rounded out the top five at the wheel of the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, 0.010s back from Auer.
The #188 Garage 59 McLaren retained its place at the top of the Bronze Cup order, with Adam Smalley taking the baton from Louis Prette and doing the business in Pre-Qualifying. The series newcomer lapped in 1m54.357s to place an excellent sixth overall. Garage 59 has traditionally run well at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Mikael Grenier ensured that AlManar Racing by GetSpeed topped the Gold Cup classification. The Canadian took 12th spot overall in the #777 Mercedes-AMG, a little over half a second shy of Harper's benchmark. Patrick Assenheimer led the Silver Cup for Madpanda Motorsport in P33.
The session was brought to a premature end when Nicolas Baert crashed the #11 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, making heavy rear contact with the barriers 10 minutes before the scheduled finish. This has been a particularly difficult day for the Belgian squad, which only go its #21 machine on-track during the closing stages of Pre-Quali after a crash in Free Practice.
Cars will be back on-track tomorrow at 09:45 for Qualifying, which sets the grid for the season-opening race at 15:00.