Spinelli Leads Tight Free Practice at Indianapolis 8 Hour

Manufacturer parity at the front with mechanical failures forcing teams to focus on repairs before Pre‑Qualifying.

Overview

Loris Spinelli put the No. 64 Chicago Performance & Tuning Lamborghini on top of the 90-minute Free Practice with a 1:23.686 lap that narrowly beat Loek Hartog by 0.024 seconds.
The top four featured four different GT3 manufacturers—Lamborghini, Porsche, Ford and BMW—illustrating close performance parity among makers at the front of the field.
A left-front brake rotor failure on the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes driven by Álex Palou caused the session's lone red flag and left the car sidelined after just 12 laps.
Contact in Turn 1 between the No. 28 RS1 Porsche and the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari produced a three-minute stop-and-hold penalty for RS1 driver Daan Arrow and added to teams' incident review work.
Teams must convert practice pace into grid position at Pre‑Qualifying at 9:50 a.m. EST while addressing reliability, lineup changes such as Riccardo Pera subbing in for GMG, and race strategy ahead of the eight‑hour event.