Matteo Cressoni and Francesco Simonazzi finished the practice in Mugello on top. The pair on the #24 Porsche 992 GT3 of Dinamic GT were nearly five tenths quicker than the rest of the field. Behind the fast laptimes was an extensive programme of long runs and preparing for the 3-hour race on Sunday.
At 10:05 CET the first practice started under a warm, yet crisp, Italian morning sun. In the valley of Mugello the engines started and the drivers went out for their first laps of the day. It was busy on track right from the very first moment. Within the first ten minutes, the #45 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo was the first car to get a lap in, setting the benchmark of 1:48.267. Soon after, the track started to evolve and the laptimes got faster, with the #24 Dinamic GT Porsche 992 GT3 R putting a 1:47.487 on the board.
For the drivers the track limits seemed to be their main rival on this practice day, as many times were deleted due to cars not staying within the white lines of the track. With twenty minutes to go the #50 Spirit of Racing Ferrari sharpened the benchmark to a 1:47.265, just 0.032s faster than the #74 Ferrari. Title-contenders in the #64 Mercedes-AMG GT3 by Antonelli Motorsport clocked sixth time, missing about half a second to the front.
BMW’s get the pace in in the afternoon
About three hours later, the schedule continued with the second free practice. It was quite windy in the Tuscan hills, making some twists and turns likely more challenging. BMW Team Ceccato Racing was out of the pitlane in front of the pack, after which it was Nova Racing setting the first benchmark of the afternoon: the laptime of 1:47.894 was the time to beat within the first ten minutes of the session. Like in the morning, the Ferrari’s looked competitive from the start, with the #51 slotting in just 0.035s behind the leading BMW.
Any fastest laps attempts were temporarily stopped by a Full Course Yellow, which only took a couple of minutes. The session restarted with 48 minutes left on the clock. Not much later the session was neutralised again by another FCY with a car that had spun into the gravel. It was an eventful session so far, with the #11 Nova Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo still in P1, the #51 Spirit of Racing Ferrari in P2 and the #63 VSR Lamborghini in P3.
After thirty minutes the hierarchy changed slightly, with the #7 Ceccato Racing BMW slotting into P1 with a new fastest laptime of 1:47.808. Meanwhile the sun had disappeared from a part of the track, including the main straight and the pitlane, significantly cooling down the temperatures. The #64 Mercedes and the #66 Lamborghini did not seem to be focussed on showing off their pace and drove their own programmes, both outside of the top nine.
Dinamic GT Porsche ends on top
Another spin into the gravel from one of the Spirit of Racing Ferrari’s caused late FCY, that was over as soon as the car was lifted outside of the track barriers. The top three changed again as the #73 Mercedes of Antonelli Motorsport put the car in P1 ieth a new lap of 1:46.769, a small step compared to the time set by the #7 BMW. It was the #24 Dinamic GT Porsche that made a big jump of nearly five tenths to a lap of 1:47.277, pushing the #11 BMW out of the top three.
