Alessio Rovera paced Free Practice at Misano ahead of what is a crucial weekend for the AF Corse Francorchamps Motors squad.
Rovera and co-driver Vincent Abril began the 2025 Sprint Cup season with a win at Brands Hatch, but the #51 Ferrari has failed to register a point since, leaving the crew more than 20 adrift of the championship lead. A victory at Misano could vault them back into the title fight.
The #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG was second fastest in the hands of Maxime Martin, who finished a little over three tenths down on Rovera's 1m32.467s benchmark. Dennis Marschall was third in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, leading the Bronze Cup classification in the process.
Arthur Leclerc took fourth in the #50 AF Corse Francorchamps Motors Ferrari, followed by the #46 Team WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi. The Italian was fastest of all for the first 40 minutes, which was reserved for Silver and Bronze drivers.
Sixth overall – and quickest in the Gold Cup class – went to the #777 Al Manar Racing by WRT BMW. Al Faisal Al Zubair was at the wheel and, like Rossi, set the time during the first half of then session.
The Silver Cup pace-setter was one place further back. Alex Aka led the way in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, beating CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa winner Jordan Pepper (#63 Grasser Racing Lamborghini). The #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG and the #32 Team WRT BMW completed the top 10 overall.
The fastest 21 cars were separated by less than a second while less than two seconds covered first to 42nd. The session was stopped once, shortly after the halfway point, when the #270 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin came to a halt at turn 15. The car was able to return to the pit lane and the green flag was shown soon after.
Cars will be back on-track at 19:20 CEST for a one-hour Pre-Qualifying session. Qualifying 1 takes place tomorrow (Saturday) at midday followed by Race 1 at 20:15. Live streaming begins on Saturday and continues for the remainder of the weekend.
> RESULTS: Free Practice