Copyright GP2 Media Services
Sergey Sirotkin led the way in the free pratice session at the Red Bull Ring. The Rapax driver, who had been in the battle for the top of the time sheet all session long, was three tenths of a second faster than Russian Time’s Mitch Evans. Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne finished the session in third place..
The sky was covered with clouds as the session began, but despite rain being forecast it remained dry. Only 25 cars drove in this session, as Sergio Canamasas will not be driving for MP Motorsport this weekend.
Sirotkin was the first one to set at fast lap, followed by Alex Lynn. However, laptimes soon began to drop as drivers got their tyres up to the right temperature after the first few minutes. The first competitive laptime of 1:17.307 was again set by Sirotkin, 4 and a half tenths of a second faster than the DAMS duo of Pierre Gasly and Lynn.
A spin of Jordan King interrupted the session soon afterwards. The Racing Engineering driver was able to move his car back on the track quickly and managed to avoid disturbing Pierre Gasly’s flying lap, which brought the Frenchman up to the top of the time sheet as the first man to break the 1:17 minute barrier. Vandoorne made his first mark at this point as well and jumped up to second place. Shortly afterwards Sirotkin reclaimed the top spot, and a battle for the fastest lap emerged between the Russian, Vandoorne, and Lynn as they all kept improving their best laptimes, pushing before their pit stops.
The first stops for fresh tyres were made quite earlier than usual: 15 minutes into the session the current leaders, Sirotkin and Lynn, retreated into the pit lane and were subsequently pushed down the order by Mitch Evans, Vandoorne, and Arthur Pic. When the two former leaders rejoined, they quickly regained their positions when their rivals had to stop for fresh rubber as well.
With 20 minutes left to run and almost all drivers back on track, the battle for the fastest lap between Sirotkin, Evans, Vandoorne, and Lynn continued until the session was interrupted by a red flag due to Gasly stopping on track. it was restarted with seven minutes on the clock but there were no more improvements made, so that it was Sirotkin on top with a lap of 1:14.880 when the checkered flag fell. Mitch Evans finished the session in second place, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, Alexander Rossi, Alex Lynn, Raffaele Marciello, Pierre Gasly, Rio Haryanto, Arthur Pic, and Nick Yelloly.
