The no65 Panis Racing Oreca 07-Gibson was the fastest of the 42 cars that took to the track at the Circuit Paul Ricard for the first Free Practice session of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet weekend. Nicolas Jamin was the fastest of the three drivers, the Frenchman posting a 1m43.397, one tenth of a second ahead of the no9 Prema Racing Oreca of Louis Deletraz, the Swiss posting a 1m43.503.
The no22 United Autosports Oreca of Tom Gamble was third fastest, just 0.092s ahead of Jack Aitken in the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca, which was the fastest of the seven cars entered in the LMP2 Pro-Am category.
The top 10 LMP2 cars were covered by less than one second at the end of the 90-minute session, with most cars improving their times in the latter part of the practice period.
The no3 United Autosports Ligier was the fastest of the 13 LMP3 entrants, with Kay Van Berlo lapping the 5.7km circuit in 1m49.896, the only LMP3 car to get below 1m50 in FP1. The second placed car was the no5 RLR MSport Ligier of Alex Kapadia, the British drivers time of 1m50.165 three tenths ahead of the third place no27 Cool Racing Ligier of Antoine Doquin.
The no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari was the quickest of the 12 LMGTE cars, Mikkel Jensen setting a lap of 1m53.845 0.157s ahead of the two Proton Competition Porsches, with the no77 911 driven by Gianmaria Bruni finishing second with a 1m54.002 lap and Richard Leitz third fastest with a 1m54.105.
Reigning LMGTE Champions Iron Lynx finished the session with the fourth best time, with Davide Rigon setting a lap of 1m54.117 in the no60 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO.
