By alley - May 23, 2015, 12:01 PM ET

BES: Vanthoor's Audi fastest in Silverstone practice

WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor topped the times in free practice for Sunday's Blancpain Endurance Series encounter at Silverstone.

Vanthoor, who is bidding for a third victory on successive weekends with the WRT squad after his Brands Hatch Blancpain Sprint Series win and then his triumph in the Nurburbring 24 Hours, set a best time of 2m01.097s early in the second of the two practice sessions. That time aboard the Audi R8 LMS ultra he shares with Robin Frijns and Jean-Karl Vernay put him just under a tenth up on the 2m01.180s set by Franck Perera aboard the Pro-Am class TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3.

The top two were half a second ahead of third-placed Markus Winkelhock, who ended up on a 2m01.688s in the solo Phoenix Audi R8.

Fourth place went to the factory Grasser Lamborghini Huracan driven by Mirko Bortolotti on a 2m01.731s, while Kevin Estre took fifth in the best of the VonRyan Racing McLaren 650S GT3s on a 2m01.749s.

Qualifying for the second round of the BES round begins at 8 a.m. UK time on Sunday.

LEADING POSITIONS

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	J-K.Vernay, R.Frijns, L.Vanthoor	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	2m01.097s	34
2	E.Dermont, F.Perera, H.Hassid	TDS Racing	BMW	0.083s	33
3	S.Thong, M.Lee, M.Winkelhock	Phoenix Racing	Audi	0.591s	30
4	G.Venturini, A.Zaugg, M.Bortolotti	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	0.634s	30
5	S.Gisbergen, R.Bell, K.Estre	Von Ryan Racing	McLaren	0.652s	28
6	P.Wilson, S.Leonard, M.Meadows	Leonard Motorsport	Aston Martin	0.669s	36
7	N.Bastian, S.Dusseldorp, K.Graf	ROWE Racing	Mercedes	0.714s	27
8	L.Machitski, T.Sardarov, J.Cocker	Team Russia by Barwell	BMW	0.895s	33
9	N.Lapierre, A.Q.-Hobbs, A.Parente	Von Ryan Racing	McLaren	0.943s	25
10	A.Vasiliev, K.Al-Azhari, M.Asmer	GT Russian Team	Mercedes	0.944s	33
11	K.Chiyo, W.Reip, A.Buncombe	Nissan GT Academy Team RJN	Nissan	1.006s	23
12	P.Gaillard, D.Hallyday, J.Nash	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	1.049s	33
13	F.Stippler, S.Richelmi, S.Ortelli	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	1.071s	32
14	S.Walkinshaw, M.Plowman, C.Dolby	MRS GT Racing	Nissan	1.120s	32
15	A.Al Harthy, J.Adam, D.Lloyd	Oman Racing Team	Aston Martin	1.166s	29