> Result: Free Practice 1
Kessel Racing’s #11 Ferrari set the pace in the first official Gulf 12 Hours practice session this morning, but all five Pro cars were once again conspicuously absent from the top positions.
Four Pro-Am and two Am entries comprised a top-six covered by half-a-second before the top overall contender – GruppeM’s #77 Mercedes-AMG – finally made an appearance.
Table topper Scott Andrews’ best of 1m52.302s was a tenth-and-a-half down on Joel Sturm’s testing benchmark but 0.256s faster than Herberth’s #11 Porsche, driven by Alfred Renauer, in second overall – a car that also headed the list of 11 Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli entries.
Next came Garage 59’s McLaren and Herberth’s other Porsche, which features IGTC Independent Cup title contender Antares Au. AF Corse’s #25 Ferrari and last night’s pace-setting Car Collection Porsche completed the first half dozen.
The best placed Pro entry driven by Frank Bird was next up, albeit 0.5s down on Andrews’ best, while Richie Stanaway (EBM), Maximilian Goetz (2 Seas), Luca Stolz (GruppeM) and Nick Yelloly (WRT) rounded out a stacked second half of the top 11.
Free Practice 2 begins at 14:30 local time (10:30 GMT).