Robin Frijns has fired an early the warning shot to his rivals at the Nurburgring as the GP2 rookie set the fastest time in opening practice.
Setting a time of 1:39.838 the Hilmer Motorsport man set a time one tenth faster than RUSSIAN TIME racer Sam Bird. Mitch Evans was two tenths further back and rounded out the top three.
The Barcelona race winner got ahead of Bird just before the half way mark. That was just after the Brit set two personal best sectors on his way to his 1:39.962 – beating the early time set by GP2 series leader Stefano Coletti and fellow Brit James Calado.
With most driver’s peeling into the pits as the session hit half time, Mitch Evans in the Arden International car had a free track in which to set a time beating that of Fabio Leimer, the Racing Engineering driver would eventually finish fourth.
In the final minutes many drivers went out to try and better the first place time but it was not to be, Coletti finished fifth, James Calado – after running wide on his last lap – was sixth, Jolyon Palmer seventh and Tom Dillmann eighth.
The qualifying session also takes place today (Friday) with many teams expected to try out the super-soft tyres in order to get pole position for the GP2 Feature Race on Saturday.
