Da Costa quickest in GP3 practice at Silverstone
| By Simon Strang |
Friday, July 6th 2012, 08:46 GMT |
 Antonio Felix da Costa set the pace in the first practice session for the GP3 Series on a very wet Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on Friday morning.
The Portuguese Carlin driver waited until the very last minute to post his 2m11.463s lap in atrocious conditions that remained in place throughout the 45 minutes of running.
Countless spins and offs, including one for da Costa, peppered the session and the yellow flags seemed to be constantly waving.
Tamas Pal Kiss was caught out by one such yellow, having initially set his best time to head the field while one was waving. That time of 2m12.552s was disallowed but, no matter, for the Hungarian improved on that time anyway to end the morning second fastest, 0.37s behind da Costa.
Mitch Evans' last lap was good enough to ensure he went ahead of Patric Niederhauser, while Aaro Vainio was fifth.
Connor Daly was sixth quickest ahead of a raft of late-lap time posters including Marlon Stockinger and Tio Ellinas, who bumped Alex Brundle down from a respectable seventh to tenth in the final moments of the session on his home track.
Among the spinners were Fabio Gamberini, Facu Regalia, Kotaro Sakurai, Will Buller - who continued to end the morning 12th fastest - Alice Powell, Fabiano Machado (who caused the last yellow) and David Fumanelli. Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Antonio Felix da Costa Carlin 2m11.463s
2. Tamas Pal Kiss Atech CRS 2m11.836s + 0.373s
3. Mitch Evans MW Arden 2m12.308s + 0.845s
4. Patric Niederhauser Jenzer 2m12.984s + 1.521s
5. Aaro Vainio Lotus 2m13.433s + 1.970s
6. Conor Daly Lotus 2m13.468s + 2.005s
7. Kevin Ceccon Ocean 2m13.667s + 2.204s
8. Marlon Stockinger Status 2m13.969s + 2.506s
9. Tio Ellinas Manor 2m14.583s + 3.120s
10. Alex Brundle Carlin 2m14.595s + 3.132s
11. Matias Laine MW Arden 2m15.418s + 3.955s
12. William Buller Carlin 2m15.550s + 4.087s
13. Daniel Abt Lotus 2m15.601s + 4.138s
14. Giovanni Venturini Trident 2m16.229s + 4.766s
15. David Fumanelli MW Arden 2m16.285s + 4.822s
16. Antonio Spavone Trident 2m17.078s + 5.615s
17. Facu Regalia Jenzer 2m17.848s + 6.385s
18. Vicky Piria Trident 2m18.177s + 6.714s
19. Kotaro Sakurai Status 2m18.369s + 6.906s
20. Dmitry Suranovich Manor 2m18.822s + 7.359s
21. Fabio Gamberini Atech CRS 2m19.651s + 8.188s
22. Ethan Ringel Atech CRS 2m21.265s + 9.802s
23. Robert Visoiu Jenzer 2m21.415s + 9.952s
24. Alice Powell Status 2m21.834s + 10.371s
25. Fabiano Machado Manor 2m22.854s + 11.391s
26. Carmen Jorda Ocean 2m26.610s + 15.147s
27. Robert Cregan Ocean
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