Agostini Quickest in 24H Spa Night Practice

Photo: JEP/SRO

Riccardo Agostini set the fastest time in the night practice session for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, which started almost an hour later than originally planned due to delays during qualifying.

The Italian steered the No. 70 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, which he shares with Custodio Toledo, Matt Bell and Blake McDonald, to a best lap of 2:17.605, leading the Pro-Am class in the process.

In the process, he went 0.294 seconds faster than an early benchmark set by Alexander Sims in the No. 2 Johor Motorsports JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, who also went fastest in Bronze Cup.

The remainder of the top five was made up by McLaren 720S GT3 Evos, with Dean MacDonald third in the No. 58 Garage 59 entry, followed by the No. 188 machine of Tom Fleming and the Gold Cup-leading No. 111 CSA Racing car in the hands of Jim Pla.

Mikael Grenier slotted into sixth in the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, ahead of the No. 5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren driven by Ollie Millroy.

Thomas Preining picked up eighth in the No. 911 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R, notably setting a 2:18.363 that was identical to ninth-placed Matteo Cairoli’s best effort in the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.

The top ten was completed by Mirko Bortolotti in the No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

The fastest Silver Cup car was the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, which ended the session in 19th overall.

The 90-minute session, which served as the conclusion of Thursday running, started nearly an hour later than originally scheduled.

This came as the result of multiple red flags during the preceding qualifying session, with Qualifying 1 in particular extended multiple times to allow all cars to post flying laps.

There were no red flag stoppages during the practice session, however.

On-track running for the 24H Spa on Friday will be headlined by the Superpole shootout to determine the polesitter for the 78th running of the Belgian endurance classic, which takes place at 4:10 p.m. CEST (10:10 a.m. EST).

Source: Sports Car 365