GetSpeed led a Mercedes-AMG sweep of the top five positions in this morning's Free Practice session at Monza.
Jules Gounon posted a 1m45.629s to top the times, beating Maximilian Götz (#9 Boutsen VDS) by 0.005s. Kazuto Kotaka (#611 Nordique Racing), Marvin Dienst (#81 Winward Racing) and Lucas Auer (#48 Winward Racing) completed the Mercedes-AMG dominance, maintaining the strong form the brand showed during Friday's pre-event test session.
Among the classes, the #611 Nordique Racing entry was quickest in the Gold Cup, while the #81 Winward Racing car led Bronze. Indeed, the only class not topped by a Mercedes-AMG was the Silver Cup. Tresor Attempto Racing led this classification and placed sixth overall with Alex Aka driving the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.
The first red flag was caused by the #333 Paul Motorsport Lamborghini pulling off the circuit with a technical failure, causing a brief pause in proceedings. The second was the result of a big accident for the #270 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin. Antoine Potty crashed at the Ascari chicane, causing heavy front and rear damage to his Vantage. The driver was able to exit the car but was taken to the medical centre for checks. "It was a big shunt," said team manager François Verbist afterwards.
The third stoppage was required when Will Moore found the gravel at Lesmo 1. The #42 Century Motorsport BMW was removed, but the car was unable to return to the pits under its own power and had to be pushed behind the barriers. Shortly after the chequered flag the pit lane was flooded with fans and the drivers emerged to sign autographs.
All 59 cars entered for this weekend's event participated in the session; however the continued involvement of the #270 Aston Martin is uncertain following its heavy crash. Pre-Qualifying is up next at 15:30 CEST and can be watched live on the GT World YouTube channel.