Three Mercedes on top of free practice at Portimão
25.04.2025
The 2025 International GT Open has officially kicked off today with the free practice sessions in a sunny and windy day at the Autódromo do Algarve.
The Mercedes dominated the proceedings with three cars in the top-3 and also the Porsches did well with two cars in the top -6.
Fastest of the day were Valentin Pierburg and Dominik Baumann, the SPS duo, with a time of 1.41.721, followed by the sister AMGs of Anthony Bartone-Fabian Schiller (GetSpeed, +0s124) and Heiko Neumann-Lukas Dunner (Motopark, +0s330).
In fourth, the fastest Porsche, the Dinamic car of Maksim Kizilov-Alexey Nesov (+0s343), followed by the Motopark Mercedes of Levente Revesz-Matteo Cairoli (+0s442), with the first five with times posted in the morning session. Sixth overall and fastest in the afternoon was the other Porsche by Car Collection of ‘Hash’-Alex Fontana.
The first Ferrari, the AF Corse car of Laurent De Meeus-Vincent Abril, was 10th (+1s008), the first McLaren 13th, with James Kell-Dean MacDonald (Optimum Motorsport, +1s146) and the first Audi, the Eastalent Racing car of reigning champions Simon Richer-Christopher Haase 16th (+1s213).
The Olimp Racing Ferrari of Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski, 22nd overall, was the fastest car in Am, while the Bronze session was topped by Steve Jans (GetSpeed Mercedes) with a time of 1.42.650.
The only ‘no show’ is the Ferrari of Baron Motorsport, which couldn’t arrive on time from its winter season in the Middle East.
