The battle has started at the Red Bull Ring ...

The 33 cars on the grid for the Austrian round started work on their set ups during the first 90 minutes on track and in the top category, LMP2, it was the No.34 ORECA03 Nissan of Race Performance which set the fastest time of 1:24.163 ahead of the No.43 NewBlood by Morand Racing Morgan Judd (1:24.497) and the No.38 Zytek Z11SN of JOTA Sport at 1:24.698. 

For NewBlood by Morand Racing this is something of a home race and it has already shown it means business.  The driving trio of Austrian Christian Klien, Swiss Garry Hirsch and newcomer to the French team, Pierre Ragues, is determined to do well and has already demonstrated this.  However, Race Performance wasn't to be outdone as Franck Mailleux and Michel Frey placed the No.34 ORECA03 Judd at the top of the time sheets after 30 minutes. JOTA Sport is keen to continue its good form here, as is Thiriet by TDS Racing who set the fourth quickest time of the session.

In LMGTE Ferrari showed the way with the No.72 of SMP Racing lapping in a time of 1 :30.050 ahead of the No.58 of Team Sofrev-ASP (1:30.694), while the only Aston Martin Vantage V8 on the grid, the No.85, set the third fastest time of the LMGTE category. 

Today, in GTC, it was the McLaren MP4 12C GT3 of Art Grand Prix which put itself at the top of the category by setting a time of 1:31.272, ahead of the two Ferrari 458 Italia GT3s of No. 57 SMP Racing (1: 31.430) and No.95 AF Corse (1: 31.492).

With gaps between the cars are already being tight, the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring weekend is promising some great track battles.  The second free practice session will begin at 15h00 for a further 90 minutes of running time for all classes.