Thomas Randle continued his strong form from Silverstone to top Spa-Francorchamps practice. The Australian, who currently sits second in the BRDC British F3 Championship, set a personal best of 1min 16.693seconds.
He was dominant in second practice, beating Douglas Motorsport teammate Enaam Ahmed by over 2 tenths of a second. The pair became the drivers to beat on Thursday, with Ahmed topping the sheets in third practice.
Behind the Douglas duo, Ricky Collard recorded the third fastest time in second practice and thus overall. Despite this, the Brit struggled to prove his pace in the remainder of the sessions. He finished sixth and eighth for the first and last tests leaving many to question his raw pace.
The two drivers who could challenge the Douglas Motorsport pair are Lando Norris and Matheus Leist. As he did in Silverstone, the Brazilian topped the opening practice session, setting the pace early on. Norris meanwhile, will focus on gaining race experience before his return in Formula Renault at the end of the month.
Despite a fairly normal end to second practice, the Sean Walkinshaw Racing cars provided upset during the rest of Thursday with Eugene Denyssen going third in final practice. The South African finished 0.06 seconds behind team mate Thomas Maxwell in the overall standings.
Randle will be pleased to have finished as the top Douglas driver as he looks to close in on Collard in the championship.
“The car worked really well today” Randle said. “We played around with different aerodynamic settings to try to find what the best balance was and I think we’ve got a good package for tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to qualifying and the team are doing a great job as always.”
