F3 Euroseries news

Vernay fastest in Hockenheim practice

The free practice on the 4.574 kilometres Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg was won by Jean Karl Vernay (Signature, 1:46.999 minutes). It was just before the end of the 60 minutes session that he went into the lead. Roberto Merhi (Manor Motorsport, 1:47.110 minutes) finished into second place.

In the battle for the rookie classification, Alexander Sims (Mücke Motorsport, 1:47.217 minutes) showed the best performance in finishing third. His rival Valtteri Bottas (ART Grand Prix, 1:48.289 Minuten) came in ninth, although he had been keeping the leading position for a long time.

Right from the start of the free practice, Valtteri Bottas pointed out that he was ready for the fight with Alexander Sims. The Finnish race driver was shown on top of the classification until 15 minutes before the session ended, when his team mate Esteban Gutierrez (ART Grand Prix, 1:48.339 minutes) pushed him out of place one. Nonetheless, Jules Bianchi (ART Grand Prix, 1:47.839 minutes) set an even quicker time than the Mexican and was now shown in top position.

During the session, the track got a little drier and the lap times constantly improved. Renger van der Zande (Motopark Academy, 1:47.852 minutes) moved up into position four, followed by Marco Wittmann (Mücke Motorsport, 1:48.073 minutes), who had dropped back from second place where he was shown at mid-practice. Andrea Caldarelli (SG Formula, 1:48.910 minutes) had a long stop at the pits and joined practice only for the last 20 minutes of the session. Despite missing the greatest part of practice, he made it up until 13th place.

Ten minutes before the end of the one hour session, Mika Mäki (Signature, 1:48.850 minutes) still made it into the top five, whereas Roberto Merhi and Renger van der Zande improved into positions three and four respectively. The Spanish race driver then also set fastest time in sector one and started to attack the fastest lap time achieved by Bianchi. He caught the Frenchman with another absolute fastest time in the third sector. His advance of 0.8 seconds was very comfortable, but the Spanish race driver entered by Manor Motorsport still had some resources. He was able to improve his time in sector one again but lost too much time in the third sector. His fastest lap time remained unbeaten for the moment. "The weather was really crazy this time, the track was damp but not really wet. If the conditions are going to change for this afternoon's qualifying, we have to start all over again. I really want to finish the season final with a good result and many championship points."

Meanwhile, Jean Karl Verny had moved up into third place and Jules Bianchi left his pits to rejoin the session for a counterattack. Vernay, however, was the first driver to achieve a lap time approximate to the one set by Merhi. The Frenchman thus took over second position. At the same time, the name of Tom Dillmann (HBR Motorsport, 1:48.227 minutes) was suddenly shown into place four on the timing lists, now followed by Marco Wittmann into fifth position.

In a close battle with one fastest sector time respectively, the rivals Vernay and Bianchi had a neck-and-neck fight about the lead when the chequered flag came out. The driver of the team Signature finally dominated. Bianchi even had to let Alexander Sims pass and finished only fourth behind Vernay, Merhi and Sims, and the group was followed by Renger van der Zande, Marco Wittmann and the returnee and last year's vice-champion Edoardo Mortara (Kolles & Heinz Union, 1:48.166 minutes). "I was not happy with the set-up at the beginning but we improved constantly. We are on the right way and if we continue to follow it, a place in the leading group should be possible after qualifying", is the optimistic statement of Mortara. The top ten were completed by Tom Dillmann, Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez. "Alex is on a better position in the final ranking but I have no worries. I was leading for a long time when the track was still damp. We did not have the proper tyre pressure at the end when the track became quicker and that is why I was no longer able to improve my time in contrast to Alex Sims", Bottas explained relaxed.

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