Free practice 1: First blood to Peugeot!

Nineteen days after the finish of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Imola 6 Hours saw battle rejoined in the Le Mans Series between the main endurance teams. The first free practice session turned in Peugeot's favour in front of its main rival, Audi.

The No. 7 Peugeot 908 in the hands of Sébastien Bourdais (Peugeot Sport Total), paired up with Anthony Davidson, set the first benchmark time in the first free practice session on the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit in 1m 34.227s. Just 496/1000s in arrears came the no. 1 Audi R 18 TDI (Audi Sport Joest). Their respective team-mates were not far behind thanks to Stéphane Sarrazin (no. 8 Peugeot 908) and Tom Kristensen (No.2 Audi R18 TDI).

Behind the four diesel-powered cars came Emmanuel Collard (no. 16 Pescarolo Team Pescarolo-Judd) in fifth spot ahead of Guillaume Moreau (no. 15 OAK Racing OAK Pescarolo-Judd) and Nicolas Prost/Neel Jani (no. 12 Rebellion Racing Lola B10/60-Toyota coupe.  

In LM P2, Nicolas de Crem and Dominik Kraihamer (no. 45 Boutsen Energy Racing Oreca 03-Nissan) were quickest in 1m 39.785s from Mathias Beche, Pierre Thiret and Jody Firth (no. 46 TDS Racing Oreca 03-Nissan).

Jens Petersen, Elton Julian and Christian Zugel (Genoa Racing) and John Hartshorne, Steave Keating and Phil Keen (Neil Garner Motorsport) were the two front-runners in Formula Le Mans ahead of the quickest LM GTEs.

In LM GTE Pro, Giancarlo Fisichella delighted his many fans by setting the best time in his no. 51 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia in 1m 46.028s from the team's other F458 (no. 71)  driven by Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo, and the 2 BMW Motorsport M3s with no. 56 leading no. 55.

In LM GTE Am, Ferrari also dominated with the Krohn Racing and AF Corse F430s beating the no. 67 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 RSR.

The second free session will take place this afternoon between 16h30 and 18h00.