Gounon chases FIA GT leaders

Wendlinger set a time of 1:26.263 on the 3.6km track that he described as "just turning and turning".

However, their #1 Team Oreca Chrysler Viper faced serious competition, both from the other Vipers and from the Porsche 911 GT2 entered by Michael Eschmann for Stéphane Ortelli and Sascha Maassen.

Some surprise competition for the dominant Oreca team might also come from Paul Belmondo Racing, mainly due to a last-minute substitute for the injury-hit team.

Jean-Marc Gounon, winner of the last two rounds of the SportsRacing World Cup, will drive the #22 Belmondo Viper with German driver Steffen Widmann.

Fifth in the afternoon session, after leading for a time, Gounon, driving a Viper for the first time, was beginning to get used to the car. 'By Sunday, it should be OK,' he said.

This race was due to see the triumphant debut of the new Marcos Mantara LM600.

Things did not go according to plan, as the car was unable to take part in the first session due to problems during the technical verifications.

In the afternoon, only five laps were completed before a reoccurrence of a prop-shaft problem, which had already prevented it from taking part in earlier rounds of the Championship.