> RESULT: FP2
Martin Rump posted the fastest time of either practice session in FP2 earlier today to suggest that the Estonian and KCMG by Champion Racing could be a major threat for pole position this afternoon. Craft-Bamboo Racing also maintained their impressive start by once again topping the GT4 times.
Mitch Gilbert led much of the 60-minute session before Rump vaulted to the top in the final 10 minutes thanks to his blistering 1m26.113s lap. That was just over a tenth quicker than Alessio Picariello’s FP1 benchmark and 0.282s faster than Franky Cheng could manage in the Milestone Racing Audi, which also improved late on.
R8 LMS GT3s once again filled the top-four places thanks to Gilbert’s earlier time, which left the Malaysian and his OD Racing co-driver Aditya Patel fastest of the championship contenders, as well as Alex Yoong in the Audi R8 LMS Cup entry. Both were less than 0.4s shy of Rump.
Maxi Buhk set his and Hunter Abbott’s best time in the first half of the session and slipped to fifth as a result, 0.090s behind Yoong, while Max Wiser’s late flyer helped his Spirit of Race Ferrari improve to sixth.
Picariello was only seventh on this occasion after lapping 0.5s slower than the morning session. However, the J-Fly by Absolute Racing ace still did enough to finish ahead of VSR’s Sandy Stuvik and Christopher Dreyspring, while championship leaders Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong rounded out the top-eight.
Craft-Bamboo were once again fastest in GT4 after improving their morning’s time by two tenths. But championship leaders Jean-Marc Merlin and Frank Yu saw their advantage slashed by Ringo Chong who was just 0.212s behind the Porsche Cayman. Jeremy Wang was another 0.9s further back in third.
This afternoon’s qualifying session, which for the first time sees the GT3 and GT4 classes split between four 15-minute sessions, begins at 15:55 local time.