Boutsen VDS led the first full-field session of this year's CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa by topping Free Practice with its #9 Mercedes-AMG.
The 90-minute run began on a damp track following a handful of morning showers, but within a handful of laps it was dry enough to change over to slick Pirelli tyres. Of course, at Spa-Francorchamps, rain is never far away. With 25 minutes remaining the heavens opened and the circuit was drenched, preventing any further improvements.
As such, the time set by Maximilian Götz stood as the benchmark. The 2013 race winner posted a 2m17.134s, putting almost three tenths between himself and Dean MacDonald (#58 Garage 59 McLaren). Third went to the #12 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari driven by Davide Rigon, with the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi fourth in the hands of Alex Aka.
The top four was composed of four different classes. The pace-setting Pro car from Boutsen VDS was followed by the class leaders in Gold (Garage 59), Bronze (Rinaldi) and Silver (Tresor Attempto). There were six different brands in the top six positions, with the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin and the #2 JMR Corvette following the leading quartet.
The best of the Pro-Am runners was the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. Driven by factory ace Miguel Molina, the one-off entry was 11th overall with a best time of 2m17.825s.
Despite the challenging conditions, the session ran without a serious incident. All 75 cars competing in the event turned laps, with only the #64 HRT Ford Performance Mustang managing less than 10 tours of Spa-Francorchamps. The #112 CSA Racing McLaren ran the most, putting a total of 29 laps on the board.
Cars will be back on-track at 17:40 for the one-hour Pre-Qualifying session, while the main Qualifying begins at 21:15. Both will be streamed live in six languages on the GT World YouTube channel.