The Eastalent Audi fastest on wet and dry track, 21 cars in one second in free practice

18.10.2024

It’s a double-faced Monza the one that welcomed the last round of the 2024 International GT Open. Heavy rain hit the Lombard track on Thursday (for private testing) and on Friday, but luckily sunny weather was back for the afternoon session of free practice. Needless to say, all best lap times were posted in session 2.

At the end of the day, championship co-leaders Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase were fastest in their Audi of Eastalent Racing, with a time of 1.45.788. The session was extremely competitive, with 21 cars covered by one second. The Austrian Audi was fastest also in the wet session (1.56.971). Second fastest of the day was the GetSpeed Mercedes of Anthony Bartone-Fabian Schiller (+0s102), despite suffering damage in a crash in the morning on the wet. The car was repaired in time to take part in most of the second session.

Third fastest (+0s271), first in Pro-Am and second in the wet, was another Audi, the one of Saintéloc Racing, which made an excellent debut with Mikaël Blanchemain-Jim Pla, ahead of the SPS Mercedes of Mikaeel Pitamber-Dominik Baumann (+0s293), another debuting pair, Zak Meakin-Mikey Porter in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren (+0s299) and the Mercedes by Motopark of Diego Menchaca-Marcos Siebert (+0s342).

The two other main title bidders, Alessio Deledda (Oregon Team Lamborghini) and Nicola Marinangeli-Vincent Abril (Spirito of Race Ferrari) were eleventh and tenth, respectively, with the Motopark Mercedes of Heiko Neumann-Timo Rumpfkeil was the fastest car in Am.   

Three cars couldn’t show up: the #99 Attempto Audi following damage last week, the #23 Pellin Ferrari and the #24 Greystone McLaren.