Valerio Rinicella leads opening practice at Spa-Francorchamps

Valerio Rinicella led the opening practice session for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps as the European Le Mans Series returned from its summer break. Driving the No. 18 Oreca 07 Gibson for IDEC Sport, Rinicella set a dominant pace in the LMP2 category with a time of 2:02.110, finishing nearly a second ahead of the competition.

Defending champion Esteban Masson followed in second place for Forestier Racing by Panis, with Jake Hughes of Algarve Pro Racing in third. In the LMP3 class, Louis Iglesias of CLX Motorsport maintained his strong form, recording a 2:12.788 in the Ligier No. 17, narrowly beating Wyatt Brichacek of DKR Engineering.

The LMGT3 category saw the most competitive margins. Sergio Sette Camara set the fastest time of 2:17.985 in the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, finishing less than a tenth of a second ahead of Davide Rigon in the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.