Stefano Coletti was fastest in practice ahead of this weekends GP2 Series round at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany. The Racing Engineering driver set a best time of 1:24.771s to pip ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne.
Coletti and Vandoorne swapped places on a couple of occasions, with the Monegasque driver coming out on top, and with his team-mate Raffaele Marciello being third fastest, the Racing Engineering team could be the ones to beat this weekend.
Marciello’s late run to third relegated Alexander Rossi to fourth in his first time in a Campos Racing car having walked out on Caterham during the week. The American is substituting for Kimiya Sato this weekend who has commitments in the Auto GP World Series.
The second American in the field Conor Daly was fifth fastest for Venezula GP Lazarus, and was another to set a quick lap time towards the end of the session having been towards the back of the field up to then.
Stephane Richelmi was sixth for DAMS but team-mate and current GP2 Series championship leader Jolyon Palmer could only set the twelfth best time. Nathanael Berthon, newly confirmed as part of the Caterham Young Driver programme, completed a relatively successful session for the Venezuela GP Lazarus team in seventh.
The two closest rivals to Palmer in the standings were eighth and ninth, with Carlin driver Felipe Nasr just ahead of Trident Racing’s Johnny Cecotto Jr. Austrian driver Rene Binder was tenth for Arden International.
Silverstone Feature race winner Mitch Evans was another to struggle for pace, ending the free practice session down in seventeenth for Russian Time, while Rossi’s replacement in the EQ8 Caterham Racing team Tom Dillmann was twenty-first.
Three drivers stopped on track during the session, with Carlin’s Julian Leal, MP Motorsport’s Marco Sorensen and Campos Racing’s Arthur Pic all failing to get back to the pits.
Hockenheim Free Practice Times
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Stefano Coletti | MON | Racing Engineering | 1:24.771 |
| 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | ART Grand Prix | 1:24.881 |
| 3 | Raffaele Marciello | ITA | Racing Engineering | 1:25.154 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | USA | Campos Racing | 1:25.177 |
| 5 | Conor Daly | USA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:25.228 |
| 6 | Stephane Richelmi | MON | DAMS | 1:25.271 |
| 7 | Nathanael Berthon | FRA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:25.299 |
| 8 | Felipe Nasr | BRZ | Carlin | 1:25.329 |
| 9 | Johnny Cecotto Jr | VEN | Trident Racing | 1:25.355 |
| 10 | Rene Binder | AUT | Arden International | 1:25.359 |
| 11 | Daniel de Jong | NED | MP Motorsport | 1:25.448 |
| 12 | Jolyon Palmer | GBR | DAMS | 1:25.494 |
| 13 | Arthur Pic | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:25.497 |
| 14 | Takuya Izawa | JAP | ART Grand Prix | 1:25.589 |
| 15 | Rio Haryanto | INO | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:25.671 |
| 16 | Sergio Canamasas | ESP | Trident Racing | 1:25.676 |
| 17 | Mitch Evans | NZL | RT Russian Time | 1:25.719 |
| 18 | Daniel Abt | GER | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:25.736 |
| 19 | Simon Trummer | SWI | Rapax | 1:25.792 |
| 20 | Jon Lancaster | GBR | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:25.841 |
| 21 | Tom Dillmann | FRA | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:25.911 |
| 22 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | GBR | Rapax | 1:25.964 |
| 23 | Andre Negrao | BRZ | Arden International | 1:26.031 |
| 24 | Artem Markelov | RUS | RT Russian Time | 1:26.139 |
| 25 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | MP Motorsport | 1:26.314 |
| 26 | Julian Leal | COL | Carlin | 1:26.672 |
