Ferrari hit the front in Pre-Qualifying at Brands Hatch with Vincent Abril fastest of all aboard the hotly tipped #51 AF Corse Francorchamps Motors entry.
The Italian ace posted a 1m23.754s to edge Konsta Lappalinen (#14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari) by just 0.014s. Sven Müller broke the Ferrari dominance by placing third in the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche, with another Ferrari taking fourth courtesy of Arthur Leclerc (#50 AF Corse Francorchamps Motors).
Barwell Motorsport continued its strong start by finishing fifth, again beating fellow Lamborghini squad Grasser Racing, with Free Practice pace-setter Winward Racing taking seventh spot.
The #58 Garage 59 McLaren was eighth overall and led the Gold Cup classification, Adam Smalley beating class rival Gilles Magnus (#25 Saintéloc Racing Audi) by 0.065s. Kelvin van der Linde completed the top 10 in the #32 Team WRT BMW, one spot ahead of Silver Cup leader Aurélien Panis (#10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG)
The session was cut short by a red flag, which was shown with 15 minutes left on the clock after Romain Andriolo made heavy contact with the barriers at Paddock Hill Bend. The #64 HRT Ford Performance driver was able to exit his car unassisted, but between removing the Mustang and repairing the barrier there was not enough time to resume Pre-Qualifying.
As such drivers will head into Qualifying with a little less track time than they would have liked. The session gets underway at 15:45 BST and will air live on the GT World YouTube channel.