“FIA F3: Giovinazzi heads Hockenheimring practice”

Giovinazzi showed Friday practice pace at Hockenheim. © FIA.
Giovinazzi showed Friday practice pace at Hockenheim. © FIA.

Antonio Giovinazzi headed both of today’s FIA European F3 free practice sessions at the Hockenheimring.

Having proved speedy at times during the opening weekend at Silverstone two weeks ago, the Italian showed pace again at the German Grand Prix circuit.

Looking content, Giovinazzi commented that, ‘the pace is good, the car feels quite nice’. His Carlin team also ran long stints of approximately 10-11 laps, with which both team and driver appeared happy.

Lucas Auer made his presence felt in both sessions, with the Austrian coming closest to Giovinazzi during the quicker second session, helped no doubt by a new set of tyres in the late stages.
It will come as some relief to the Mucke squad, who struggled for pace all the way through the opening round. Mucke’s other primary competitor, Felix Rosenqvist, also showed well on the timesheets.

Max Verstappen also placed highly during the latter running, despite being some eight-tenths off the pace during the initial session. Round one race winners Tom Blomqvist, Antonio Fuoco and Esteban Ocon did not rise to the top, but threatened on occasion.
Commenting on the conditions, Blomqvist noted: ‘the track remained rather slippy following the previous night’s rain storm […] but that there is more time to come.’

It was something of an interesting session for Michele Beretta. The Italian suffered the attention of the stewards for breaking track limits on a number of occasions, before getting pinged for speeding in the pitlane.

2014 FIA European F3 Championship (Rd 2, Free Practice 1)
Pos Driver                Team                      Time
 1. Antonio Giovinazzi    Jagonya Ayam/Carlin-VW    1:34.019
 2. Esteban Ocon          Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:34.064
 3. Tom Blomqvist         Jagonya Ayam/Carlin-VW    1:34.166
 4. Felix Rosenqvist      Mucke-Mercedes            1:34.270
 5. Antonio Fuoco         Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:34.386
 6. John Bryant-Meisner   Fortec-Mercedes           1:34.414
 7. Lucas Auer            Mucke-Mercedes            1:34.438
 8. Mitch Gilbert         Fortec-Mercedes           1:34.472
 9. Felipe Guimaraes      Double R-Mercedes         1:34.590
10. Jordan King           Carlin-Volkswagen         1:34.687
11. Sean Gelael           Jagonya Ayam/Carlin-VW    1:34.706
12. Ed Jones              Carlin-Volkswagen         1:34.804
13. Max Verstappen        Van Amersfoort-Volkswagen 1:34.807
14. Riccardo Agostini     EuroInternational-Merc    1:34.847
15. Felix Serralles       Team West-Tec-Mercedes    1:34.916
16. Jake Dennis           Carlin-Volkswagen         1:34.916
17. Gustavo Menezes       Van Amersfoort-Volkswagen 1:34.947
18. Nicholas Latifi       Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:34.981
19. Dennis van de Laar    Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:35.076
20. Tatiana Calderon      Zeller/Mucke-Mercedes     1:35.154
21. Jules Szymkowiak      Van Amersfoort-Volkswagen 1:35.360
22. Spike Goddard         ThreeBond/T-Sport-NBE     1:35.408
23. Alexander Toril       ThreeBond/T-Sport-NBE     1:35.684
24. Sandro Zeller         Zeller-Mercedes           1:35.741
25. Michele Beretta       EuroInternational-Merc    1:35.818
26. Roy Nissany           Mucke-Mercedes            1:36.200
27. Hector Hurst          Team West-Tec-Mercedes    1:36.519


2014 FIA European F3 Championship (Rd 2, Free Practice 2)
Pos Driver                Team                      Time
 1. Antonio Giovinazzi    Jagonya Ayam/Carlin-VW    1:33.135
 2. Lucas Auer            Mucke-Mercedes            1:33.337
 3. Max Verstappen        Van Amersfoort-Volkswagen 1:33.352
 4. Esteban Ocon          Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:33.510
 5. Tom Blomqvist         Jagonya Ayam/Carlin-VW    1:33.599
 6. Felix Rosenqvist      Mucke-Mercedes            1:33.654
 7. Antonio Fuoco         Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:33.686
 8. Nicholas Latifi       Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:33.728
 9. Jordan King           Carlin-Volkswagen         1:33.747
10. Ed Jones              Carlin-Volkswagen         1:33.752
11. John Bryant-Meisner   Fortec-Mercedes           1:33.948
12. Jake Dennis           Carlin-Volkswagen         1:33.963
13. Sean Gelael           Jagonya Ayam/Carlin-VW    1:34.106
14. Riccardo Agostini     EuroInternational-Merc    1:34.177
15. Dennis van de Laar    Prema Powerteam-Mercedes  1:34.221
16. Felipe Guimaraes      Double R-Mercedes         1:34.223
17. Tatiana Calderon      Zeller/Mucke-Mercedes     1:34.248
18. Gustavo Menezes       Van Amersfoort-Volkswagen 1:34.345
19. Mitch Gilbert         Fortec-Mercedes           1:34.401
20. Alexander Toril       ThreeBond/T-Sport-NBE     1:34.413
21. Felix Serralles       Team West-Tec-Mercedes    1:34.446
22. Spike Goddard         ThreeBond/T-Sport-NBE     1:34.514
23. Jules Szymkowiak      Van Amersfoort-Volkswagen 1:34.527
24. Michele Beretta       EuroInternational-Merc    1:34.819
25. Roy Nissany           Mucke-Mercedes            1:34.864
26. Hector Hurst          Team West-Tec-Mercedes    1:35.083
27. Sandro Zeller         Zeller-Mercedes           1:35.427

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