Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia
Practice report

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.

George Russell, ART Grand Prix

George Russell, ART Grand Prix

FIA Formula 2

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 united_kingdom George Russell france ART Grand Prix 27 1'14.159  
2 5 thailand Alexander Albon france DAMS 25 1'14.321 0.162
3 9 spain Roberto Merhi netherlands MP Motorsport 24 1'14.418 0.259
4 18 brazil Sergio Sette Camara united_kingdom Carlin 26 1'14.510 0.351
5 4 netherlands Nyck de Vries italy Prema Powerteam 24 1'14.603 0.444
6 19 united_kingdom Lando Norris united_kingdom Carlin 24 1'14.631 0.472
7 21 italy Antonio Fuoco czech_republic Charouz Racing System 24 1'14.649 0.490
8 1 russia Artem Markelov russia RUSSIAN TIME 21 1'14.809 0.650
9 7 united_kingdom Jack Aitken france ART Grand Prix 19 1'14.838 0.679
10 11 germany Maximilian Gunther united_kingdom Arden International 25 1'14.845 0.686
11 17 united_states Santino Ferrucci italy Trident 28 1'14.853 0.694
12 2 japan Tadasuke Makino russia RUSSIAN TIME 21 1'14.993 0.834
13 14 italy Luca Ghiotto spain Campos Racing 25 1'15.122 0.963
14 12 japan Nirei Fukuzumi united_kingdom Arden International 21 1'15.318 1.159
15 3 indonesia Sean Gelael italy Prema Powerteam 27 1'15.359 1.200
16 20 switzerland Louis Deletraz czech_republic Charouz Racing System 26 1'15.401 1.242
17 16 india Arjun Maini italy Trident 26 1'15.488 1.329
18 10 switzerland Ralph Boschung netherlands MP Motorsport 18 1'15.591 1.432
19 6 canada Nicholas Latifi france DAMS 21 1'15.796 1.637
20 15 israel Roy Nissany spain Campos Racing 5 1'30.443 16.284

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article F2 working "day and night" to solve car issues
Next article Maini gets replacement engine at Red Bull Ring

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia