The temple of speed is ready to host the protagonists of the European Le Mans Series who, this weekend, take part in the season’s second calendar date. All eyes will be on Luzich Racing’s 488 GTE, winner of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, which will be once again driven by the official Competizioni GT drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Fabien Lavergne.
Ballast. The trio, who dominated in France, will be forced to carry 30 kg of ballast based on the result at Paul Ricard (15 kg) and the championship leadership (15 kg). Meanwhile, there will be 20 kg of ballast added to the Kessel Racing car to be raced by the all-female crew made up of Manuela Gostner, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting, capable of winning a splendid second place behind Ferrari of Luzich Racing. The second 488 GTE deployed by Kessel Racing will be entrusted to Claudio Schiavoni, Sergio Pianezzola and Andrea Piccini, eager to get back onto the podium. The trio has all the potential, as the French race showed, to aim at a notable result. Ambitions similarly shared by the JMW Motorsport car with Jeffrey Segal, Matteo Cressoni and Wei Lu confirmed, and the 488 GTE of Spirit of Race, in the hands of Duncan Cameron, Matthew Griffin and Aaron Scott.
Tight free practices. The first free practices held in the morning were closely-fought in the LMGTE class, with six cars within seven tenths of a second of each other. The best of the Ferraris was that of JMW Motorsport, second behind the Porsche of Team Project 1 of Perfetti-Roda-Bergmeister.
Schedule. On Saturday, qualification is set to follow the second morning free practice session: the ten minutes available for the drivers in search of pole position will start at 13:40. On Sunday, meanwhile, the green light is due to come on at 12:00 while the chequered flag will be waved 240 minutes later.