German GP2 Practice

Practice got underway beneath the baking sunshine of Hockenheim which heated the air to 29°C and the track to 48°C. Johnny Cecotto and Simon Trummer continued their 2014 tradition by leading the field out onto the German track.

The opening lap times were recorded down in the 1m30s region but after five minutes Jolyon Palmer knocked in the first flying lap with a time of 1:25.494. Sergio Canamasas was looking to beat the Briton but a snap of oversteer into the final corner forced the Spaniard to settle for P2. Daniël de Jong – driving the resplendent looking MP Motorsport car – soon took the top spot for himself with three purple sector times.

Stoffel Vandoorne's ART Grand Prix car is running with a thermal imaging onboard camera again this weekend and it showed the stresses and strains undertaken by the front left tyre around the Hockenheimring. Despite this, the Belgian moved into second place.

Artem Markelov wasn't having things all his own way by having a twitch into turn eleven and launching through the gravel on the exit; reminiscent of Giancarlo Serenelli's off in the same place back in 2012. Another driver with an issue was Adrian Quaife-Hobbs who ran wide on the exit of the first corner and took a bit of air when rejoining the track, thus proving the danger of running wide at such speed.

Tom Dillmann failed to fully utilise his wing mirrors as he blocked René Binder's lap but the Austrian had time for another attempt and ended his session in P10 while Jon Lancaster also didn't notice Johnny Cecotto trying to get past. Julián Leal was slow throughout the session and later stopped out on track prematurely; perhaps explaining his slow pace. The most impressive man in Silverstone Marco Sørensen also failed to get back to the pits when his MP Motorsport car failed.

Stefano Coletti set the fastest middle and final sectors on his way to a session topping time of 1:24.771 while his team mate was one place behind Stoffel Vandoorne to round out the top three. Arthur Pic's time was good enough for 13th place but a car issue kept the French driver from returning to the pit lane.

Position Driver Team Gap

1 S. Coletti Racing Engineering 1:24.771
2 S. Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 0.110
3 R. Marciello Racing Engineering 0.383
4 A. Rossi Campos Racing 0.406
5 C. Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 0.457
6 S. Richelmi DAMS 0.500
7 N. Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 0.528
8 F. Nasr Carlin 0.558
9 J. Cecotto Trident 0.584
10 R. Binder Arden International 0.588
11 D. De Jong MP Motorsport 0.677
12 J. Palmer DAMS 0.723
13 A. Pic Campos Racing 0.726
14 T. Izawa ART Grand Prix 0.818
15 R. Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 0.900
16 S. Canamasas Trident 0.905
17 M. Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 0.948
18 D. Abt Hilmer Motorsport 0.965
19 S. Trummer Rapax 1.021
20 J. Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport 1.070
21 T. Dillmann EQ8 Caterham Racing 1.140
22 A. Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 1.193
23 A. Negrão Arden International 1.260
24 A. Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 1.368
25 M. Sørensen MP Motorsport 1.543
26 J. Leal Carlin 1.901