Silverstone F2: Leclerc leads Rowland in Thursday practice
Ferrari Formula 1 junior driver Charles Leclerc led the way in Formula 2 practice at Silverstone ahead of his nearest championship challenger Oliver Rowland.
Charles Leclerc, PREMA Powerteam
FIA Formula 2
Leclerc, who enters the weekend with a 49-point lead over his British rival, moved to the top of the times early on in the 45-minute session, which took place on a Thursday afternoon instead of its usual Friday slot as part of an experiment with the timetable of the support races at Silverstone.
DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi soon went quicker before Leclerc improved to retake first place, and then Rowland, who is targeting an improved qualifying performance in front of his home crowd, moved to the top spot as the session approached halfway.
But Leclerc hit back almost immediately with a time of 1m40.793s to go back to the top of the timesheets.
That time was the benchmark across the mid-session lull, but Prema Racing driver Leclerc was able to improve again during the second half and ended up with a best time of 1m40.695s.
Rowland also bettered his best time to a 1m41.010s, but wound up 0.315s adrift of Leclerc, who is chasing a record-equalling sixth consecutive pole position in the F1 support category.
Luca Ghiotto finished third for Russian Time, ahead of Latifi and Red Bull Ring sprint race winner, Artem Markelov.
Sergio Canamasas was sixth for Rapax, with Briton Jordan King – a winner in what was then called GP2 at Silverstone in 2016 – seventh at his home track.
Nyck de Vries ended up eighth ahead of Arden International’s Norman Nato, who lost a piece of bodywork from the right-hand side of his car as he headed down the Hanger straight just before the halfway point after it had been flapping around during the early stages.
Louis Deletraz rounded out the top 10 for Racing Engineering.
Antonio Fuoco was 13th in the second Prema-run car, ahead of the ART Grand Prix pair Nobuharu Matsushita and Alexander Albon.
The third British driver in the field – European Formula 3 racer Callum Ilott, who is making his F2 debut in a one-off appearance for the Trident squad – finished in 18th place.
Robert Visoiu – the Campos Racing driver facing a three-place grid penalty after he was adjudged to have caused a collision with de Vries during the sprint race last time out in Austria – brought up the rear of the field.
Practice results
Cla | # | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Charles Leclerc | Prema Powerteam | 16 | 1'40.695 | 210.612 | ||
2 | 9 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 18 | 1'41.010 | 0.315 | 0.315 | 209.955 |
3 | 5 | Luca Ghiotto | RUSSIAN TIME | 16 | 1'41.247 | 0.552 | 0.237 | 209.463 |
4 | 10 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 17 | 1'41.283 | 0.588 | 0.036 | 209.389 |
5 | 6 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 17 | 1'41.316 | 0.621 | 0.033 | 209.321 |
6 | 19 | Sergio Canamasas | Rapax | 17 | 1'41.328 | 0.633 | 0.012 | 209.296 |
7 | 15 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 19 | 1'41.329 | 0.634 | 0.001 | 209.294 |
8 | 18 | Nyck de Vries | Rapax | 20 | 1'41.359 | 0.664 | 0.030 | 209.232 |
9 | 20 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 19 | 1'41.377 | 0.682 | 0.018 | 209.195 |
10 | 3 | Louis Deletraz | Racing Engineering | 18 | 1'41.631 | 0.936 | 0.254 | 208.672 |
11 | 14 | Sergio Sette Camara | MP Motorsport | 16 | 1'41.660 | 0.965 | 0.029 | 208.613 |
12 | 4 | Gustav Malja | Racing Engineering | 13 | 1'41.742 | 1.047 | 0.082 | 208.444 |
13 | 2 | Antonio Fuoco | Prema Powerteam | 16 | 1'41.755 | 1.060 | 0.013 | 208.418 |
14 | 7 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 18 | 1'41.824 | 1.129 | 0.069 | 208.277 |
15 | 8 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 17 | 1'41.885 | 1.190 | 0.061 | 208.152 |
16 | 21 | Sean Gelael | Arden International | 19 | 1'42.224 | 1.529 | 0.339 | 207.462 |
17 | 11 | Ralph Boschung | Campos Racing | 15 | 1'42.284 | 1.589 | 0.060 | 207.340 |
18 | 17 | Callum Ilott | Trident | 17 | 1'42.314 | 1.619 | 0.030 | 207.279 |
19 | 16 | Nabil Jeffri | Trident | 17 | 1'42.317 | 1.622 | 0.003 | 207.273 |
20 | 12 | Robert Visoiu | Campos Racing | 18 | 1'42.677 | 1.982 | 0.360 | 206.546 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments