Azerbaijan feature race winner Alexander Albon was fastest in practice at the Circuit de Barcelona ahead of the third round of the 2018 Formula 2 season.
Albon was fast throughout the session, topping the times after his first hotlap of the session despite losing 0.7 seconds in being held up by traffic in the final sector.
He was briefly toppled from top spot by Luca Ghiotto and Sergio Sette Camara, but improved on his next lap. He posted a 1m29.327s to regain first and this remained the fastest time in the session.
Carlin’s Sette Camara finished second, 0.2s behind, while Ghiotto was 0.4s adrift of Albon in third for Campos Racing.
Prema Racing’s Nyck de Vries was fourth ahead of championship leader and McLaren Formula 1 reserve driver Lando Norris in fifth. Norris had briefly held top spot in what was a truncated opening 15 minutes of the 45-minute session after early two red flags.
These were caused by two separate spins at Turn 4. First, Santino Ferrucci beached his Trident on his opening lap of practice. Later, Ralph Boschung spun onto the grass at the same corner, stalling his MP Motorsport car and triggering the second red flag. They finished 19th and 20th respectively.
Antonio Fuoco was wrong-footed by Roy Nissany at the chicane while on a fast lap. He recovered with a later lap time good enough for sixth.
Ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi finished seventh, improving with his final lap of the session and demoting ART Grand Prix’s George Russell to eighth. Russell recorded a personal best in sector two on his final lap but lost time in the last sector, failing to improve overall.
Nissany and the second ART of Jack Aitken rounded out the top 10.
Artem Markelov took to escape roads at Turns 1, 9 and 13 en route to 14th place on the timesheet. He was edged by team-mate Tadaskue Makino, who finished 13th. He too went off at Turn 13. Maximilian Gunther locked-up into Turn 1 ahead of his final lap. He ended the morning 15th.
