Risi Competizione pulled off a dramatic last lap pass at VIRginia International Raceway last year to take the win and now the Ferrari team have kicked off their 2015 assault in strong form.

Pierre Kaffer set the fastest time of the morning session, stopping the clocks at 1:43.937 to be fastest ahead of Antonio Garcia’s championship-leading No.3 Corvette and Earl Bamber in the No.912 Porsche.

The GTLM machines will be racing for the overall victory here at VIR this weekend and the championship is hotting up with Garcia and Jan Magnussen holding a slender four point lead over the BMW of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner.

However, looming as a large headache for both the Corvette and BMW teams is the No.911 Porsche of Patrick Pilet. While his teammate and Le Mans overall winner Nick Tandy is out of contention after missing Laguna while on WEC duty, Pilet is only a five points out of the lead.

Pilet and Tandy have won the past two races to close the championship gap. The No.911 car was fifth fastest in this morning’s session.

In the GT Daytona class last year’s GTLM driver’s champion Kuno Wittmer put the Aston Martin at the top of the times in the car he is sharing with GTD championship leader, Christina Nielsen. The second generation female Danish racer holds a two point margin over the Audi of Dion von Moltke and Christopher Haase.

Cars will be back on track this afternoon at 4:00pm for the second of three sessions.