Callum Ilott led a quartet of British drivers to head free practice around the streets of Pau on Friday, with the Prema Powerteam driver edging out Jake Dennis by just 0.005 seconds.
Round three of the 2017 FIA European Formula 3 Championship takes place around the legendary street circuit, and Ilott, twice a winner already this season, set the pace with a best time of 1:10.914s.
Dennis, racing in what is likely to be his last event of the Formula 3 season before he turns his attention back to his Blancpain GT campaign, was second fastest for Carlin, while his team-mate Lando Norris was third ahead of Jake Hughes of Hitech Grand Prix, making it four Brits at the very top of the timing screens.
Joey Mawson was fifth for Van Amersfoort Racing, but his team-mates all struggled, David Beckmann, Pedro Piquet and Harrison Newey down between sixteenth and eighteenth, ahead only of the struggling Marino Sato.
Nikita Mazepin was sixth fastest for Hitech Grand Prix ahead of Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg, while Prema Powerteam rounded out the top ten, Maximilian Günther ahead of Guan Yu Zhou and Mick Schumacher.
Championship leader Joel Eriksson was twelfth for Motopark, just behind Hitech Grand Prix’s Ralf Aron.
Qualifying for race one takes place later this afternoon, with racing getting underway on Saturday.
Pau Free Practice Combined Results
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