Parisy and Mercedes Continue to Lead the Way in Slovakia

FREE PRACTICE 1

Eastern European drivers held sway in the early part of the first Free Practice session at the Slovakia Ring as local knowledge was obviously playing a big part in the lap times. Jarek Janis (CZE) and Csaba Walter (HUN) were at the top of the timing screens but as the session progressed things soon evened out.

At the end of the 60-minute session Mike Parisy set the fastest time this session, in the nr3 Graff Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, with a best time of 2:03.449. Claudia Huertgen, in the nr7 Need for Speed Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3, set her best time of 2:03.656, placing her second. Third fastest this session was Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof in the nr24 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600, with a time of 2:04.150.

The session was interrupted by a red flag with 20-minutes left on the clock, when two cars had to be recovered and removed to safe positions. The nr20 MTECH Motorsport Ferrari of Jan Denis got stuck in the gravel at T13 and the nr11 Gravity Charouz Racing Mercedes-Benz of Leonid Matchitski hit the tyre wall at T9.

CLICK HERE for the result from Free Practice 1

FREE PRACTICE 2

The FIA GT3 drivers’ second outing on the Slovakian track proved to be an eventful one with the session being stopped twice during the 60-minutes, with the second red flag ending the second Free Practice 3-minutes early due to too much debris on track. The session was also interrupted early on when the session was red flagged to retrieve the nr36 Faster Racing by DB Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 and the nr45 Heico Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

Mike Parisy once more set the fastest lap time of the session in the nr3 Graff Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, with a time of 2:02.857, the best time of the weekend so far. Maxime Martin wasn’t far behind him with his best time of 2:02.896 in the nr9 LMP Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9. Third fastest was championship leader Francesco Castellacci in the nr50 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, with his lap of 2:03.027. As the drivers learn the new Slovakia Ring circuit the times continue to tumble and this was reflected in the fact that the top nine cars set laps within one second of Parisy’s lap time.

Qualifying for Rounds 9 & 10 of the 2011 FIA GT3 European Championship is due to take place at 09:30 (local time) tomorrow morning (Saturday 20 August), with Round 9 getting underway at 14:45 in the afternoon.

CLICK HERE for the result from Free Practice 2

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