Posted on 22nd August 2014
Cool but sunny weather greeted the teams and drivers for Practice at midday in Belgium. Johnny Cecotto led René Binder and the rest of the field out onto the track.
After an initial tyre warm-up lap, Cecotto got on the gas and went to set the first fast lap. The Venezuelan got too trigger happy out of turn eight and got the back end of his Trident car sliding. Sergio Canamasas topped the time sheets after the first laps from all the drivers with a 1:58.370.
The first half of the session was relatively quiet and at the midpoint it was led by Cecotto who confirmed the pace of the Trident car ahead of: Julián Leal, Nat Berthon, Stoffel Vandoorne and Sergio Canamasas.
RT RUSSIAN TIME's Artem Markelov was struggling to break the two minute barrier but the Russian driver eventually reached the feat; he moved up into P24.
Improvements began to be made across the field and it was Leal who took to the top of the timing board. The Colombian's time of 1:57.877 went unbeaten for the remainder of the session. Simon Trummer looked to be able to go to P1 with a purple first sector but then bailed on his lap in the middle sector.
Stefano Coletti suffered a spin through the exit of T13 and then stopped on the circuit. As the Racing Engineering car was stuck in gear, the red flags were brought out to recover the car.
With four minutes left on the clock some drivers went out to get another lap under their belts. Conor Daly was the only driver to make an improvement with a fresh set of tyres on his wagon. The American ended the session in P5.
Position Driver Team Gap
1 Leal Carlin 1:57.877
2 Cecotto Trident 0.153
3 Marciello Racing Engineering 0.388
4 Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 0.414
5 Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 0.425
6 Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 0.462
7 Canamasas Trident 0.493
8 Coletti Racing Engineering 0.497
9 Richelmi DAMS 0.522
10 Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 0.562
11 Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 0.577
12 Palmer DAMS 0.585
13 Sørensen MP Motorsport 0.610
14 Nasr Carlin 0.781
15 Trummer Rapax 0.910
16 Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 0.923
17 Izawa ART Grand Prix 1.012
18 Dillmann EQ8 Caterham Racing 1.046
19 Abt Hilmer Motorsport 1.066
20 Pic Campos Racing 1.143
21 Binder Arden International 1.290
22 Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport 1.302
23 De Jong MP Motorsport 1.434
24 Negrão Arden International 1.586
25 Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 1.654
26 Sato Campos Racing 1.687
