Pau European F3: Rookie Alessio Lorandi tops free practice

The 16-year-old Italian, run by Van Amersfoort Racing, drove flamboyantly from the start in wet conditions, and set the quickest lap during a small window when the track briefly began drying out at the start of his group's second session.

It was a good recovery from an ignominious end to his first session - Lorandi finished that one in third place behind Jake Dennis and Gustavo Menezes, but hit the barriers at the small chicane just before the end of the lap after the chequered flag.

Sporting a gashed finger, Lorandi - on only his third race weekend in cars - said: "It was really good but I think I could have been a couple of tenths better, although it was good to get my confidence back.

"This is a really hard track and I never even did a street circuit in karting, although I worked a lot in the simulator to learn it."

Lorandi was 1.1 seconds clear of Markus Pommer (Motopark) when the second session was red flagged with six minutes remaining after Menezes had a very big accident at the Gare corner after the start-finish straight.

The American was sent to the medical centre where he was given a clean bill of health, but it will take a lot of work for the Carlin mechanics to prepare his wrecked machine.

Dennis ended up third in that group in his Prema Powerteam car, from Menezes and Fortec Motorsport driver Pietro Fittipaldi.

Another VAR racer, Arjun Maini, topped the odd numbers from team-mate Charles Leclerc as the track started to become less wet towards the finish.

Carlin-run championship leader Antonio Giovinazzi was close at hand in third, followed by Alex Albon (Signature) and 2014 Pau GP winner Felix Rosenqvist in his Prema car.

Leclerc had looked in a class of his own in the earlier, wetter session, which he headed by over a second from Maini and Santino Ferrucci.

This period was stopped with a couple of minutes remaining when Mahaveer Raghunathan crashed at the Poeymirau right-hander, and the damage too heavy for the Indian to take part in second practice.

Others to hit the barriers were Red Bull junior Callum Ilott (at the beginning of his first session and the end of his second), Nicolas Pohler, F3 debutant Gustav Malja and Sergio Sette Camara.

Meanwhile, Peter Li is not racing his Fortec car this weekend as he has been called back home to China to attend to family business as his father is ill.

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