Moscow FR3.5: Red Bull protege da Costa quickest on Friday

The Portuguese racer's afternoon effort of 1m21.097s eclipsed championship leader Kevin Magnussen's morning best by 0.217 seconds.

Magnussen's DAMS team-mate Norman Nato took second position in both one-hour sessions, and was shaded by da Costa by just 0.048s in the afternoon.

Tyres played a big role at the Russian track, as several drivers reported that they struggled to extract a second fast lap time on new rubber.

The second session was extremely closely contested with one second covering the first 23 cars.

Marlon Stockinger was buoyed by a solid fourth in the afternoon, ahead of Will Stevens and Spa hard charger Nigel Melker.

In a field with four Russians in it, the top local hope was teenage Auto GP graduate Sergey Sirotkin in seventh in the second session.

Behind him, Oliver Webb slipped to eighth after holding the fastest time for a long period.

Webb's Fortec team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, Magnussen's closest rival in the title race, ended the morning session in fourth before dropping to 15th in the afternoon.

Series debutant Will Buller was 0.742s off da Costa's afternoon pace in 20th for Zeta Corse.

Morning session:

Pos  Driver                  Team            Time       Gap
 1.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS            1m21.314s
 2.  Norman Nato             DAMS            1m21.870s  +0.556s
 3.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham  1m21.877s  +0.563s
 4.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec          1m21.990s  +0.676s
 5.  Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1          1m22.138s  +0.824s
 6.  Zoel Amberg             Pons            1m22.264s  +0.950s
 7.  Andre Negrao            Draco           1m22.298s  +0.984s
 8.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus           1m22.316s  +1.002s
 9.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1          1m22.330s  +1.016s
10.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin          1m22.373s  +1.059s
11.  Arthur Pic              AV              1m22.526s  +1.212s
12.  Sergey Sirotkin         ISR             1m22.529s  +1.215s
13.  Nico Muller             Draco           1m22.564s  +1.250s
14.  Will Stevens            P1/Strakka      1m22.711s  +1.397s
15.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus           1m22.810s  +1.496s
16.  Lucas Foresti           SMP/Comtec      1m22.871s  +1.557s
17.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin          1m22.915s  +1.601s
18.  Oliver Webb             Fortec          1m22.961s  +1.647s
19.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka      1m23.030s  +1.716s
20.  Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham  1m23.107s  +1.793s
21.  Nikolay Martsenko       Pons            1m23.120s  +1.806s
22.  Christopher Zanella     ISR             1m23.203s  +1.889s
23.  Daniil Move             SMP/Comtec      1m23.339s  +2.025s
24.  Yann Cunha              AV              1m23.616s  +2.302s
25.  Will Buller             Zeta            1m23.658s  +2.344s
26.  Mihai Marinescu         Zeta            1m24.082s  +2.768s

Afternoon session:

Pos  Driver                  Team            Time       Gap
 1.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham  1m21.097s
 2.  Norman Nato             DAMS            1m21.145s  +0.048s
 3.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS            1m21.168s  +0.071s
 4.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus           1m21.241s  +0.144s
 5.  Will Stevens            P1/Strakka      1m21.325s  +0.228s
 6.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1          1m21.336s  +0.239s
 7.  Sergey Sirotkin         ISR             1m21.353s  +0.256s
 8.  Oliver Webb             Fortec          1m21.374s  +0.277s
 9.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus           1m21.405s  +0.308s
10.  Nikolay Martsenko       Pons            1m21.442s  +0.345s
11.  Arthur Pic              AV              1m21.445s  +0.348s
12.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin          1m21.490s  +0.393s
13.  Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham  1m21.506s  +0.409s
14.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka      1m21.527s  +0.430s
15.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec          1m21.569s  +0.472s
16.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin          1m21.623s  +0.526s
17.  Nico Muller             Draco           1m21.651s  +0.554s
18.  Daniil Move             SMP/Comtec      1m21.760s  +0.663s
19.  Lucas Foresti           SMP/Comtec      1m21.786s  +0.689s
20.  Will Buller             Zeta            1m21.839s  +0.742s
21.  Christopher Zanella     ISR             1m21.910s  +0.813s
22.  Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1          1m21.976s  +0.879s
23.  Andre Negrao            Draco           1m22.038s  +0.941s
24.  Zoel Amberg             Pons            1m22.155s  +1.058s
25.  Yann Cunha              AV              1m22.760s  +1.663s
26.  Mihai Marinescu         Zeta            1m23.024s  +1.927s