Hughes Fastest In FP1 At Barcelona

2026 European Le Mans Series: Free Practice 1 Summary

Barcelona, Spain – In a competitive opening Free Practice session of the 2026 European Le Mans Series at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Jake Hughes of Algarve Pro Racing demonstrated impressive pace, clocking the fastest time of 1:29.720 in his #25 ORECA 07 – Gibson. Hughes, who had previously set the fastest time during pre-season testing, reaffirmed his form shortly after the session resumed from a Red Flag incident.

LMP2 Class Highlights:

IDEC Sport’s Paul-Loup Chatin followed closely, finishing the session with a time of 1:29.925, making him the only other driver to break the 1:30 barrier.
Tom Dillmann in the #43 Inter Europol Competition secured third, followed by the #37 CLX Motorsport entry and TDS Racing’s #14 ORECA, which was the best-performing LMP2 Pro/Am at fifth overall. Sami Meguetounif recorded a time of 1:30.517 in the latter.

LMP3 and GT3 Insights:

In LMP3, Henry Cubides Olarte topped the charts with a time of 1:38.236 in the #13 Ligier JS P325 – Toyota, leading by 0.584 seconds over R-ace GP’s Hugo Schwarze.
The LMGT3 category saw a dominant Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo lockout of the top four positions. Kessel Racing’s Daniel Serra achieved the fastest lap of 1:41.577, followed by Lorcan Hanafin in the #86 GR Racing entry.

Session Interruptions:
The session saw an early Red Flag due to Nielsen Racing’s Alex Quinn reporting an oil leak, which interrupted running for 20 minutes. The #3 DKR Engineering ORECA also caused a brief Full Course Yellow after stopping on track.

Looking Ahead:
Free Practice 2 is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:10 CEST, following a collective test for Bronze drivers later today.

Free Practice 1 Times: