McLaren Formula 1 reserve Lando Norris led Mercedes junior George Russell in the practice for the fifth round of the 2018 Formula 2 season at Paul Ricard.
Championship leader Norris improved by nearly a second on his second hot lap of the session, deposing early pacesetter Louis Deletraz to take top spot.
ART Grand Prix’s Russell had to back off from his opening lap of the session after catching traffic in the final sector. He improved to second place towards the end of the qualifying simulation runs, a slender 0.083s behind Norris’s benchmark.
One of the last drivers to improve in the session prior to the field beginning long-run evaluation was Arden International’s Maximilian Gunther.
The rookie climbed to third on the timesheet, 0.138s adrift of Norris. He had entered the final sector with a 0.008s advantage over Norris, but was unable to match the Brit’s final sector time.
Fourth was Prema Racing’s Nyck de Vries. He was one of several drivers to be caught out at the long right-hander Turn 11, running wide on his first lap of the session, before setting his personal best time on his third lap.
Deletraz was shuffled back to fifth, having led the session for Charouz Racing System early on.
Alexander Albon, who enters this weekend on the back of three consecutive pole positions, finished in sixth. He was sitting second when his car slowed with a technical gremlin.
He crawled back to the pitlane in safe mode. Later returning to the track in the closing minutes, he was unable to improve his time, running wide at Turn 11 on one attempt.
Campos’s Luca Ghiotto and Roy Nissany were seventh and ninth, split by ART’s Jack Aitken in eighth. Nissany stopped on the Mistral Straight after the chequered flag.
Monaco feature race winner Artem Markelov rounded out the top 10. The Russian Time driver’s session ended prematurely after he ran marginally wide at Turn 6, spun and stalled the car.
