De Ferran quickest in damp first practice

Gil de Ferran turned in the quickest lap in a damp opening practice for Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport on Saturday morning. The owner of de Ferran Motorsports’ XM Acura ARX-02a set a lap of 1:21.447 (108.689 mph) for a 0.489-second advantage over Patr¢n Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham in the LMP1 championship-leading Acura that he will share with Scott Sharp.

De Ferran, driving with Simon Pagenaud, is hoping this year’s visit to Mosport ends better than last season’s. He ran out of fuel while leading the LMP2 class on the last lap.

The entire hour-long session was plagued by thick fog and occasional rain. The weather is expected to dramatically improve throughout the afternoon leading up to the second practice and qualifying at 3:50 p.m.

Chris Dyson was quickest in LMP2 and third overall for Dyson Racing. His lap of 1:25.401 (103.657 mph) in the Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupe that he will share with Guy Smith was 1.305 seconds better than Luis Diaz’s Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b. Diaz is hoping for a seventh win this year with Adrian Fernandez to wrap up the class championship.

The top three cars in GT2 all posted their best times on the last lap of the session. Corvette Racing’s Olivier Beretta went quickest – a first for the new GT2 version of the Corvette C6.R – with a lap of 1:31.906 (96.320 mph) in the car that he will drive with Oliver Gavin.

Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Wolf Henzler was second at 1:32.416 (95.789 mph) in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that he will share with Dirk Werner. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jörg Bergmeister sat third after his lap of 1:32.525 (95.676 mph). He’ll drive his Porsche with Patrick Long.