British Drivers Quickest in Free Practice at Silverstone

The British drivers on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship grid dominated the free practice sessions of the season kick-off at Silverstone. In their home race meeting at Silverstone’s 5.901-kilometre long Grand Prix circuit, Briton Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam) crossed the line in 1m50.483s, thus setting the fastest time of the session. Second position on the time sheets was secured by the fastest rookie and his compatriot, Lando Norris (Carlin), in 1m50.545s). And fourth position behind Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 1m50.761s) was clinched by the next Briton, experienced Formula 3 driver Jake Dennis (Carlin, 1m50.804s).

In the free practice sessions for their home races in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, the British drivers seemed to be particularly motivated. At the end of the 80-minute session, Ilott who is about to contest his third FIA Formula 3 season, was 0.062 seconds faster than Lando Norris who is supported by the McLaren Formula One team. By finishing third and fourth on the time sheets, Norris’ team-mates Jehan Daruvala and Jake Dennis also confirmed the performances they already had impressed with in the pre-season tests. With his time, India’s Daruvala who is supported by the Force India Formula One team and contested his first FIA Formula 3 European Championship practice session was the second-fastest rookie right away.

Behind Ilott and the three Carlin drivers, Norris, Daruvala and Dennis, two Prema Powerteam drivers – Maximilian Günther (1m50.890s) and Guan Yu Zhou (1m50,962s) finished fifth and sixth respectively. In 2016, the Italian squad won both the team and the drivers’ titles, the latter courtesy of Lance Stroll who races for Williams in Formula One this year. By securing top ten results in the free practice sessions, Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 1m51.013s) und Nikita Mazepin (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m51.120s) also made a good start into the 2017 FIA F3 European Championship season and outpaced the third-fastest rookie, Mick Schumacher (Prema Powerteam, 1m51.122s). Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing,1m51.269s) completed the top ten.

Today at 17:40hrs BST, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship young guns will go out for the first qualifying session of the season where they will try as hard as they can to secure the best possible grid position for race one.