Dušan Borković’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta set the pace in an incredibly close first Free Practice session that saw the fastest twenty drivers covered by just nine tenths of a second and six different brands in the top-seven: Alfa, Honda, Volkswagen, SEAT, Audi and Opel.
“We have worked on the car with the focus not on lap times but on improving some things. I didn’t expect to be fastest, to be honest, as everyone was quicker then yesterday because of the lower temperatures and more grip. You never know what other people are doing with tyres, so we will find out what’s going on in Qualifying,”said the Serbian.
The track was still damp after an early morning shower and James Nash posted a provisional fastest lap of 1:26.979 before Ferenc Ficza crashed and prompted the red flag.
When the session resumed, the quickest lap times were bettered several times: 1:26.942 Stefano Comini, 1:26.858 Thomas Jäger, 1:26.846 Mat’o Homola, 1:26.608 Comini again and finally 1:26.356 Borković.
Roberto Colciago’s Honda posted the second fastest lap of 1:26.499, followed by Jean-Karl Vernay’s Volkswagen (1:26.544), Daniel Lloyd’s SEAT (1:26.556), Comini’s Audi (1:26.608), Pepe Oriola’s SEAT (1:26.633) and Grégoire Demoustier’s Opel (1:26.716).
A second red flag stopped the session for good a few seconds before the end, when Duncan Ende’s SEAT went off at the infamous Turn 9 because of a flat tyre, but without significant damage.
Milovan Vesnić’s Audi did not take part in the session because of a brake problem.
FP2 begins at 12:00 local time.