Signature driver Edoardo Mortara completed the fastest lap on Friday morning at the Norisring. The Italian, currently championship leader with 39 points, topped the time sheets in Germany and ended ahead of Alexander Sims and Valtteri Bottas.
In the morning, it was already 30 degrees at the Norisring when Formula 3 Euro Series went out for its free practice session. After the first 15 minutes, Alexander Sims topped the time sheets. In the second half, Edoardo Mortara took over first place. With 15 minutes remaining, the Italian and Finnish driver Bottas, who was second fastest at the time, were the only ones to have set a lap time under 50 seconds. Mortara's advantage over Bottas was 0.3 seconds.
When the final ten minutes of free practice went underway, leader Mortara was still in the pits. Bottas, Sims and Wittmann were on the track to attack Mortara's fastest time. Fifth-placed Laurens Vanthoor left his pit box in order to improve his ranking.
The first to move up one place was local hero Wittmann. In the final two minutes, Bottas caught attention by setting the outright fastest time in the second sector, but failed to topple Mortara from the lead. The latter, meanwhile, countered and set the fastest time in the first sector. However, the Signature driver didn't manage to improve his total lap time.
In the midfield, Vanthoor lost his fifth place in the closing stages to Jim Pla, who thus became the best-placed rookie in the fiekd. The Frenchman never drove at the Norisring before, but immediately found his way at this particular street circuit. His fellow rookie drivers Carlos Muñoz, Daniel Juncadella and Matias Laine occupied seventh to ninth place.
In the battle of the ART team mates, Alexander Sims outpaced Valtteri Bottas in the final second. Thus, the Brit ended up second behind Mortara, followed by Bottas, Wittmann and Pla.
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