FIA GT Championship Silverstone Practice

"We have done a lot of testing here, so we know our way around," Bailey said afterwards. "But this happened last year too, and by qualifying everyone had caught up."

Paul Belmondo Racing also had a good day, with their Chrysler Vipers coming closest to the Lister's times. The team has rearranged their drivers, with Vincent Vosse now partnering Boris Derichebourg, while team-owner Paul Belmondo shares the #11 car with Claude-Yves Gosselin.

The weather was overcast all morning, and rain started during the second session, disrupting the practice session and causing many cars to spin off the suddenly slippery track. In all 33 cars are due to take part in Sunday's 500 km race.

Freisinger Motorsport, who finished second in the previous round at Monza, only completed three laps in the first session, running in a new gearbox and engine. They also had problems in the afternoon, when the engine developed a misfire. Wolfgang Kaufmann is sharing the Porsche 911 GT2 with 1998 Le Mans winner, Stephane Ortelli this weekend.

In the N-GT class, Christophe Bouchut was fastest in the morning in the Larbre Competition Porsche 996 GT3, while Tim Sugden was faster in the afternoon, in the GTC Porsche. A new driver in the N-GT class is former F1 driver Philippe Alliot. Alliot has joined JB Giesse, at the wheel of one of their Ferrari 360 Modena cars, and will help to accelerate the development program. He will share the car with Peter Kutemann, a gentleman driver from Monaco.

Silverstone was supposed to see the race debut of the new Lamborghini GT, entered by KRT Lamborghini Engineering. However, Günther Kronseder crashed on the pit straight in the first free practice session, and will not now be able to take part. This fourth round of the FIA GT Championship is being held in conjunction with the first European Le Mans Series event, and many of the drivers and cars are taking advantage of the opportunity to drive in both events.