Signatech Alpine topped the first day of practice for the 3 Hours of Imola in the European Le Mans Series as rain hampered the opening session of the day.
Nelson Panciatici took the Signatech machine to a time of 1:36.214 seconds, 0.6 seconds faster than his closest rivals, Brendon Hartley and Mark Patterson in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan.
The fastest car in the LMPC class was the #49 Team Endurance Challenge car of Paul Loup Chatin and Gary Hirsch, finishing 8th overall, faster than two LMP2 machines.
The LMGTE class saw a close battle between the two home marques, Ferrari and Lamborghini, topped by the Ferrari 458 Italia of Ram Racing with a time of 1:43.541 seconds, while Peter Kox and Nico Pronk took the #60 Kox Racing Lamborghini Gallardo to the top of the GTC time sheets with a time of 1:44.446.
All the top times came in the afternoon session due to a wet morning session, topped by the Thiriet by TDS Racing machine of Mathias Beche and Pierre Thiriet with a time of 1:42.026.
Team Endurance Challenge also topped the morning session, with the #47 fastest on the wet track. Elsewhere, Ferrari dominated the GT classes, JMW Motorsport topping the GTE class and SMP Racing at the top of the GTC class.
