Photo : Nicolas COUSSEAU - ACO/Nikon

Heavy rain fell continuously overnight on the Road Atlanta circuit. Fortunately the sun reappeared a few minutes before the start of free practice session at 10 am.  The first competitors on the circuit found a wet track that yielded times about 15 seconds slower than the fastest time yesterday set by Franck Montagny.

With the track slowly drying out, the drivers were able to increase the pace but without being able to replicate the performance of the first session. Marcel Fässler was the fastest at the wheel of his Audi R15 Plus #9 in 1'09.579 ahead of Marc Gene and the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #07. Then comes the second Audi of Kristensen / McNish / Capello, and the second Peugeot that did not  run late in the session when the track was dry.

OAK Racing moved up into third place while Oliver Gavin managed first place with his Corvette #4, taking advantage of the best track conditions. The two Corvettes were at the forefront a few tenths ahead of the #90 BMW. Porsche and Ferrari were a little behind this morning, the first Porsche was the hybrid driven by recent winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The times do not fully reflect the likely reality of the situation because many teams had decided not to take the track at the sight of poor conditions at the beginning of the session.

Cecile Bonardel - Translated by Dave Davies