With the day’s less than ideal conditions remaining at Hockenheim, Daniel Morad has finished atop the timesheets in GP3’s only practice session of the weekend. However, uncertainty surrounds the leading time which, like many, was posted under double-waved yellow flags and may be stripped as a result.
The Status GP driver set his best time of 1:44.682 in the final minute of the session, which up until that point had been impossible to predict.
Although the rain held off, it was a damp start to the first session for the GP3 series in Germany testing the 30 young drivers to the maximum. It was Manor Racing’s Adrian Quaife-Hobbs who showed the early pace at the start of the 30 minute session along with Series leader Esteban Gutiérrez, with previous race winner Pål Varhaug also at the top of the times sheets.
But once the field had found their feet in the drying conditions the times started to drop and the fight for the top spot begun. Carlin’s Dean Smith spun his car at the mid way point resulting in a damaged rear wing and retiring him from the session early.
Meanwhile, Tech 1 Racing’s Stefano Coletti was struggling with the conditions and ended up with a black and white flag after spending too much time off-track. It was Coletti who caused the only drama of the session when he lost his damper cover out on track.
A red flag ensued and the rest of the field took the opportunity to pit for new tyres. After the session restarted it was anyone’s to take with the top ten spots changing continually. It looked like James Jakes would take the spoils but despite his best efforts the Manor driver was pipped to the post by Morad.
Atech CRS GP driver Oliver Oakes did enough to claim third spot ahead of his fellow countryman Quaife-Hobbs. Oakes’ team-mate Roberto Merhi ended the session in sixth ahead of RSC Mucke drivers Nigel Melker and Tobias Hegewald.
MW Arden’s Leonardo Cordeiro, Tech 1 Racing’s Doru Sechelariu and Status GP’s Daniel Wickens rounded out the top ten. Points leader Gutiérrez finished the session down in eighteenth.
Saturday's qualifying session starts at 8:45am local time (BST +1)
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