The first free practice session of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup is in the books and it was Christopher Haase who topped the timesheets in Portimao on Friday morning.

The Audi driver for Eastalent Racing set a blistering lap of 1:42.643, with Kelvin van der Linde in the Team WRT-BMW following just 0.004 seconds later.

F1 superstar Max Verstappen had to settle for P15 before his Mercedes-AMG fell further back during the closing stages to P20. You can watch all of Friday's action live by clicking here with FP2 beginning at 1245 local and UK time.

It was Verstappen himself who took charge of the opening stint in VT1 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. He spent 47 out of the 90 minutes behind the wheel, using his time on track to gather crucial data for the long runs.

However, his session was interrupted early on when he brushed wheels with Ezequiel Pérez Companc, lightly tapping the Saintéloc-Audi in turn three - a collision which is currently under review by the SRO stewards.

Van der Linde sets early pace as Verstappen hits the track

Kelvin van der Linde topped the times during the Friday morning free practice session with a lap of 1:42.467, leading a BMW one-two-three finish at that point. Jake Dennis in the ROWE Racing number-98 car was in second, while Max Hesse of Team WRT in the number-46 entry rounded out the top three. Completing the top five were the number-17 GetSpeed-AMG and the number-34 Walkenhorst-Aston Martin.

Verstappen fell just over half a second short of van der Linde’s best time with a lap of 1:43.046, earning him the 15th spot before he headed into the pits.

Haase edges out Van der Linde by a fraction

Chris Lulham then took charge in the number 3 AMG for Verstappen Racing for about 20 minutes, while Ben Barnicoat later completed a short stint. With a few minutes remaining in the session, Verstappen returned to push for additional laps. In the end, his car dropped back to P20 in the first free practice.

Eastalent Racing’s Christopher Haase clinched the session’s fastest time, narrowly beating van der Linde’s earlier lap by just four-thousandths of a second. The number-99 Tresor Attempto-Audi finished third with a lap time of 1:42.686 courtesy of Alex Aka.