After his maiden race win in Austria, Campos Racing’s Rio Haryanto sets an exclamation mark with the fastest laptime in the GP2 Free Practice session in Silverstone. However, local hero Alex Lynn is hot on the Indonesian’s heels with a lap time only three thousands of a second slower, and championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne is within striking distance as well with the third-fastest lap time of the session.
With the heat wave that currently dominates the weather in the United Kingdom, temperatures are higher than usual which makes tyre management even more crucial, but also more difficult on this abrasive race track. As most drivers opted to run on the prime tyre, the Hard compound, it remains to be seen who will be able to adapt quickly enough to make their setup work with the softer Medium tyre as well.
Alexander Rossi was the pace setter in the early stage of the session, followed closely by the DAMS duo of Alexander Lynn and Pierre Gasly. Meanwhile Stoffel Vandoorne remained at the bottom of the top ten struggling with medium corner speed. However, after the first 15 he had sorted out his setup, and promptly claimed the top spot from Rossi as he first driver to break the 1:41 minute barrier.
Vandoorne remained on top until the mid-session pit stop breaks, and while the ART GP driver made his stop, it was Rio Haryanto’s time to shine: The Indonesian stayed out longer than most drivers and was able to lap the circuit in 1:40.659, six hundredths of a second faster than his rival, a time that would remain unbeaten during the second part of the session.
Only Lynn was able to challenge the Indonesian in the dying minutes of the session, but the Brit was slower by just a hair’s breadth and had to settle for second place three thousands of a second off the Indonesian’s time. This demoted Vandoorne to third place at the checkered flag, ahead of Nick Yelloly, Alexander Rossi, Arthur Pic, Pierre Gasly, Raffaele Marciello, Sergey Sirotkin, and Jordan King. With 14 drivers within a second of each other the field is extremely close again, and the fight for pole position this afternoon is still wide open.
All images courtesy of GP2 Media Services
