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
