Donington Park Auto GP: Narain Karthikeyan takes control in practice
Auto GP's in-form man Narain Karthikeyan set the pace during Saturday's opening free practice session at Donington Park
The former grand prix driver held a healthy advantage throughout the 45 minute session, and his fastest time of 1m16.796s edged out championship challenger Sergio Campana by 0.598 seconds.
Karthikeyan is aiming for his fourth consecutive pole position in this afternoon's qualifying session, but has not competed at Donington Park since his tenure in British Formula 3 in the 1990s.
GP3 race winner Robert Visoiu held second spot until being demoted by Campana in the final minute of the session.
Visoiu was unable to defend his position after suffering an off and beaching his Ghinzani Motorsport entry at Coppice with 10 minutes remaining.
The Romanian's team-mate Kevin Giovesi took fourth ahead of Hungarian Tamas Pal Kiss, who enjoys relatively recent circuit knowledge from a campaign in British Formula Renault in 2010.
All the weekend's action as it happens with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live
Championship leader Kimiya Sato, defending a 13-point advantage over Campana entering this penultimate round of the series, languished among the lower reaches of the classification for much of the session before salvaging sixth position, albeit with a 0.5s deficit to his title rival.
Auto GP rookie Meindert van Buuren's start to the weekend was compromised by a driveshaft failure that cost the Dutchman a quarter of an hour of track time. He ended the morning in ninth.
The session was interrupted by a full-course yellow when Roberto La Rocca suffered a sensor failure failure on his out-lap.
The Venezuelan's Comtec by Virtuosi car was recovered to the pits during a red flag period but La Rocca was unable to resume.
The stoppage was caused when Max Snegirev crashed at the chicane, damaging the rear suspension of his Virtuosi car and removing its rear wing.
Gentleman driver Michele Rosa's morning meanwhile was disrupted by gear selection gremlins on his MLR71 machine.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Narain Karthikeyan Super Nova 1m16.796s 24 2. Sergio Campana Ibiza Racing 1m17.394s +0.598s 26 3. Robert Visoiu Ghinzani 1m17.675s +0.879s 24 4. Kevin Giovesi Ghinzani 1m17.716s +0.920s 18 5. Tamas Pal Kiss Ibiza Racing 1m17.721s +0.925s 23 6. Kimiya Sato Euronova 1m17.878s +1.082s 14 7. Daniel de Jong Manor MP 1m18.339s +1.543s 25 8. Yoshitaka Kuroda Euronova 1m18.676s +1.880s 23 9. Meindert van Buuren Manor MP 1m18.695s +1.899s 27 10. Andrea Roda Virtuosi UK 1m18.810s +2.014s 27 11. Vittorio Ghirelli Super Nova 1m19.515s +2.719s 28 12. Max Snegirev Virtuosi UK 1m20.469s +3.673s 25 13. Michele La Rosa MLR 71 1m41.449s +24.653s 18 14. Roberto La Rocca Comtec/Virtuosi - 1
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments