Gibson Technoloy once again set the pace during practice for the ELMS 4 Hours of Silverstone, as the #41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson 015S of Gary Hirsch, Bjorn Wirdheim and Jon Lancaster recorded the fastest time of the second minute session.
Lancaster’s 1:49.419s lap time was just over half a second quicker than the #38 JOTA Sport Gibson 015S of Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Filipe Albuquerque which finished the afternoon in second.
The Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03R driven by GP2 star Nathanael Berthon was third quickest, albeit 1.3 seconds adrift of the leading car.
The red flag was brought out a third of the way through the session after Peter Mann beached his #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia in the Becketts gravel trap.
AF Corse enjoyed another successful run for its pair of tried and tested ORECA 03s. The #32 car of Nicolas Minassian, Maurizio Mediani and David Markozov produced a best time of 1:51.016s which held out as the fourth quickest lap overall. The sister #34 car ended the afternoon in 7th, behind the Pegasus Racing Morgan-Nissan, the Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 and the Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA 05.
The quintet of Ginetta-Nissan LMP3 entries upped the ante in second practice, with Charlie Robertson recording a 2:05.201s in the #2 Team LNT car. The next closest Ginetta was driven by Mike Simpson, who was two seconds slower than the young Scot. Sir Chris Hoy completed another trouble-free practice session, guiding the #2 car to a best lap time of 2:06.514s.
Three different marques occupied the top three places in LMGTE, with Alex Talkanitsa reducing the day’s fastest time by over a second in the #56 AT Racing Ferrari 458 Italia. The Belarusian driver held first place ahead of the #88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR and the #52 BMW Team MarcVDS Z4 GTE. Adam Carroll continued a positive Friday for the Gulf Racing UK squad, submitting a 2:02.088s to hold fourth.
Marco Cioci was the quickest of the GTC runners, recording a fastest lap of 02:05.022s aboard the #63 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia. The sister #62 car followed just 0.006 seconds behind, while the TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3 ended the day in third.
Qualifying for the ELMS 4 Hours of Silverstone takes place tomorrow (April 11) at 11:05 GMT.
