FP2 - Algarve Pro Racing still quickest in Imola

The session was halted three minutes before the chequered flag after a car went off at Turn 5 and there was no time to extract it from the gravel and resume the session.

After setting the best time in FP1, the no47 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca continued to lead the way with the fastest time of 1m33.046 set by Alexander Peroni, which was just 0.079s ahead of the no37 Cool Racing Oreca-Gibson of reigning champion Yifei Ye.

The next three cars were split by just 0.021s, with the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca in 3rdspot after Jack Aitken posted a 1m33.203 lap around the 4.909km circuit. This was just 0.001s ahead of the best time of the no9 Prema Racing Oreca of Louis Deletraz and 21 thousandths ahead of the no31 TDS Racing X Vaillante Oreca of Mathias Beche.

The top 5 cars were covered by less than two tenths and top 10 by less than a second, setting up the prospect of a titanic battle for pole position later today.

In the LMP3 category the fastest car in the 90-minute session was the no15 RLR M Sport Ligier, with Valentino Catalano posting a 1m38.488 lap, the fastest LMP3 lap of the weekend so far.Catalano was just 0.066s ahead of the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier with Guilherme Oliveira at the wheel, the Portuguese driver two tenths ahead of his teammate Noam Abramczyk in the no14 Ligier, who finished the session in third place.

The no95 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage was the quickest of the twelve LMGTE entries, with Jonny Adam setting a 1m41.206, which was also the best class lap of the weekend so far.The Scottish driver finished the session 0.184s ahead of the no18 Absolute Racing Porsche, which had stopped earlier in the session after only completing 16 laps.Before that, Alessio Picariello had set a best time of 1m41.390s.

The third fastest car in the LMGTE field was the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari with Mikkel Jensen setting a 1m41.418 lap, 0.212s behind the leading Aston Martin and 0.2 seconds ahead of the no93 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Richard Lietz.

Qualifying for the 4 Hours of Imola will begin at 14h05 CEST with a 10-minute session for LMGTE, followed by LMP3 and then LMP2.The qualifying session can be seen live on the ELMS website.

4 H. of Imola - FP2 :