Barcelona Heat, Free Practice 1: Trajectus Motorsport and 23Events Racing kick off the 2026 season on top.

The 25 competitors of the Barcelona Heat took part in the first free practice session of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Spain). Tomas Pompidou and Marcus Terkildsen respectively put the #19 Trajectus Motorsport Ligier JS P4 and the #88 23Events Racing Ligier JS2 R at the top of the timesheets. The second free practice session will get underway at 13:50 local time.

The seventh season of the Ligier European Series officially got underway on Friday morning, 10 April, at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (4.657 km), in spring-like conditions with an ambient temperature of 15°C.

This 40-minute session proved particularly lively. In the Ligier JS P4 category, 2025 Ligier JS Cup France Junior champion Tomas Pompidou, at the wheel of the #19 Trajectus Motorsport entry, first beat last year’s Free Practice 1 benchmark time before improving further to set the reference lap of the session in 1:44.700.

Behind him, Mika Abrahams in the #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier JS P4 (1:45.573) and August Therbo in the #57 M Racing car (1:45.599) were separated by just 0.026 seconds. Alex Gardner in the #14 Team Virage entry and reigning Ligier JS2 R Champion Simone Riccitelli in the #7 LR Motorsport car completed the top five.

In the PRO-AM class, August Therbo set the fastest time in the #57 M Racing car. AM leader Jeremy Loisel experienced a busy session in the #50 Les Deux Arbres entry, with an orange and black flag shown for smoke, followed by a spin towards the end of the session.

The pace was equally strong in the Ligier JS2 R category, where Denmark’s Marcus Terkildsen, driving the #88 for 23Events Racing, broke the category lap record (1:49.811) by setting a 1:49.726 on his ninth lap. He finished ahead of the #41 VSF Sports car, which had long led the session in the hands of Daniel Dallakyan (1:50.221), and the #83 Trajectus Motorsport entry driven by Charles Lambert (1:50.707). The top three GT cars were covered by less than one second.

Maxime Aparicio set the fastest time in PRO-AM in the #18 VSF Sports Ligier JS2 R, while David Caussanel led the AM class in the #94 Pegasus Racing car.

The second 40-minute free practice session will begin at 13:50 (local time).

To view the full session results, CLICK HERE.