The weather was once again annoying the European Le Mans Series teams, when the first practice sessions during a race meeting was run.
All teams had already been testing at the Paul Ricard circuit earlier this week, but it was the same with very changeable conditions from almost dry to soaking wet track. And that was repeated again today.
The overall FP1 ran Friday morning, with DragonSpeed #21 being the fastest team ahead of TDS Racing #33 and Graff #39. #33 is the guest car this weekend, with the three FIA WEC regulars Francois Perrodo, Mathieu Vaxiviere and Loic Duval.
Ultimate #17 was fastest in the LMP3 category ahead of Oregon Team #10 and EuroInternational #11.
The GTE category had a Porsche 1-2-3, with Proton Competition #88 ahead of Gulf Racing #86 and Proton Competition #77. They were followed by the two Spirit of Race Ferraris #54 and #55, plus Krohn Racing Ferrari #83.
There was an additional Bronze test during the afternoon, for all Bronze ranked drivers. The teams running, was able to get some slicks on the cars. DragonSpeed #21 was again the fastest in LMP2, EuroInternational #11 in lMP3 and Proton Competition Porsche #88 again in GTE.
The only real dramatic event of the day was in the practice, where Inter Europol Competition #14 ended up in the wall after being hit by United Autosports #3. That gave Garret Grist #3 a slap on the wrist, and he will have to avoid any further incidents during FP2 and the qualifying – otherwise the car will get a 5 grid penalty.
That is also the case for Anders Fjordbach in the High Class Racing #49. He had a collision with Oregon Team #10, so he has a potential 5-slot penalty, as well.
Another practice will be run tomorrow morning, before the qualifying will be run in the afternoon.