Red Bull Formula 1 junior Daniel Ticktum beat Guan Yu Zhou to the top of the combined timesheet in practice for the European Formula 3 championship round at Spa Francorchamps.
Two 40-minute practice sessions were held back to back. After ending the opening session in 16th, Ticktum vaulted to the top of the times in the final 10 minutes of FP2 with a 2m11.756s
The Motopark driver – who is currently fourth in the championship standings – ended up 0.197s clear of second place Guan Yu Zhou.
Despite having finished FP1 in fifth position, Prema Racing’s Zhou had slipped down the order throughout the second session, before a late lap propelled him back towards the head of the field.
Prior to Ticktum and Zhou’s late session improvements, Sasha Fenestraz and Juri Vips contested the overall top spot. Fenestraz ended up third and just 0.004s behind Zhou’s best lap. Vips finished fourth, posting a session-best time in sector one.
Vips’s Motopark team-mate Jonathan Aberdein ended up fifth, ensuring that three Motopark-prepared cars finished in the top five. Alex Palou finished sixth for Hitech GP.
Enaam Ahmed ended up seventh, with his personal best time in practice proving to be his FP1 timesheet-topping 2m12.155s. Ahmed was the only driver in the top 12 not to have improved in the second session.
Fabio Scherer ended up eighth. Prema’s Mick Schumacher and Ralf Aron both topped the FP2 timesheet halfway through the session but slipped to ninth and 10th respectively in the closing stages.
Their team-mate and championship leader Marcus Armstrong finished in 17th on the overall timesheet. He was 11th in FP1 but only improved by 0.2s in the second session.
