BMW’s Bill Auberlen took the top spot in the GT Le Mans class battle of the brands this morning when he set the fastest time of the morning aboard the No.25 BMW Z4 GTE.

The Californian veteran stopped the clocks at 1:44.990 – the only car to dip into the 1 minute, 44 second bracket.

Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen was second fastest ahead of Gianmaria Bruni’s Ferrari.

The GT Le Mans class will feature a battle between BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin.

In the prototype class, four different power trains filled the top four spots with Oswaldo Negri Jr striking the first blow for the Le Mans-style P2 cars. He was fastest at 1:39.633 with his HPD-powered Ligier.

Corvette power was second with Christian Fittipaldi at the wheel of the Action Express No.5 entry ahead of Sage Karam (Ganassi-Ford) and Nic Jonsson (Krohn Racing-Judd)

Other class leaders included Tom Kimber-Smith in PC and Andy Lally in GTD.

Top three in class (overall in parentheses):
(1) #60-P Oswaldo Negri Jr (Ligier JS P2 Honda) 1:39.633
(2) #5-P Christian Fittipaldi (Corvette DP) 1:40.748 (1.115-)
(3) #01-P Sage Karam (Riley DP Ford EcoBoost) 1:40.902 (1.269-)

(12) #52-PC Tom Kimber-Smith (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:43.476
(13) #54-PC Colin Braun (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:43.628 (0.152-)
(14) #11-PC Bruno Junqueira (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:43.998 (0.522-)

(21) #25-GTLM Bill Auberlen (BMW Z4 GTE) 1:44.990
(22) #3-GTLM Jan Magnussen (Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) 1:45.005 (0.015-)
(23) #51-GTLM Gianmaria Bruni (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:45.044 (0.054-)

(34) #44-GTD Andy Lally (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:48.084
(35) #63-GTD Jeff Segal (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:48.367 (0.283-)
(36) #22-GTD Shane van Gisbergen (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:48.511 (0.427-)