Practice report
FIA F2 Spielberg
Red Bull Ring F2: Russell sets practice pace
Mercedes Formula 1 junior George Russell led the way in free practice for the Formula 2 round at the Red Bull Ring.
Jack Benyon
Edited: Jun 29, 2018, 12:24 PM
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The 20-year-old looked supreme en route to a 1m14.159s laptime, his ART Grand Prix-run car looking like it was on rails for most of the session.
He did have one major moment, skipping over curbs at Turn 9 – when he was on for an even quicker lap – but held on to return the car to its rightful position on the road.
DAMS driver Alexander Albon, with three poles in the series this year, was just over a tenth slower and Roberto Merhi finished the session third for his MP Motorsport team.
Sergio Sette Camara had the honour of finishing as top Carlin driver in fourth, while Nyck de Vries – winner of the last race in Paul Ricard for Prema – survived two off-track moments to stay within four tenths of pacesetter Russell.
Lando Norris put the second Carlin car in sixth, ahead of Charouz Racing System and Ferrari Academy driver Antonio Fuoco.
Artem Markelov had no less than four visits to the run-off areas on the Red Bull Ring circuit, most notably at Turn 9 where he hit a curb, the front of his car lifting off.
Luckily for the Russian, he tumbled back down to the ground and went on to finish eighth-fastest.
With 34 minutes remaining in the 45-minute session, Roy Nissany moved over in front of Jack Aitken too soon on the straight after Turn 1, clipping the ART Grand Prix driver’s front right wheel.
The damage to Campos driver Nissany’s rear-left meant he wouldn’t return to the session, while Aitken could only recover to ninth after a lengthy spell in the pits for repairs.
The Arden of Maxi Gunther rounded out the top 10, while his teammate Nirei Fukuzumi was ruled out of the session, stopping his car in the grass at the exit of Turn 4 with a mechanical issue with four minutes to go.
After clutch control issues affected the cars heavily in Paul Ricard, F2 secured extra track time for all drivers to attempt two practice starts - with DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi the only one stalling.
Session results
Cla#DriverTeamLapsTimeGap 1 8 
George Russell 
ART Grand Prix 27 1'14.159 2 5 
Alexander Albon DAMS 25 1'14.321 0.162 3 9 
Roberto Merhi 
MP Motorsport 24 1'14.418 0.259 4 18 
Sergio Sette Camara Carlin 26 1'14.510 0.351 5 4 Nyck de Vries 
Prema Powerteam 24 1'14.603 0.444 6 19 Lando Norris Carlin 24 1'14.631 0.472 7 21 Antonio Fuoco 
Charouz Racing System 24 1'14.649 0.490 8 1 
Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 21 1'14.809 0.650 9 7 Jack Aitken ART Grand Prix 19 1'14.838 0.679 10 11 
Maximilian Gunther Arden International 25 1'14.845 0.686 11 17 
Santino Ferrucci Trident 28 1'14.853 0.694 12 2 
Tadasuke Makino RUSSIAN TIME 21 1'14.993 0.834 13 14 Luca Ghiotto Campos Racing 25 1'15.122 0.963 14 12 Nirei Fukuzumi Arden International 21 1'15.318 1.159 15 3 
Sean Gelael Prema Powerteam 27 1'15.359 1.200 16 20 
Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 26 1'15.401 1.242 17 16 
Arjun Maini Trident 26 1'15.488 1.329 18 10 Ralph Boschung MP Motorsport 18 1'15.591 1.432 19 6 
Nicholas Latifi DAMS 21 1'15.796 1.637 20 15 
Roy Nissany Campos Racing 5 1'30.443 16.284
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