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Spa GP2: McLaren F1 protege Stoffel Vandoorne tops practice for ART

McLaren Formula 1 protege Stoffel Vandoorne led GP2 free practice for his home round at Spa for ART Grand Prix, 0.154 seconds ahead of Mitch Evans

Vandoorne set a time of 1m57.499s in the opening stages of the 45-minute session and remained at the top untouched thereafter.

Racing Engineering driver Alexander Rossi, who finished the session third, set the initial pace with a 1m57.731s on his first competitive run but Vandoorne quickly topped that with a 1m57.499, before improving further on the following lap.

Williams F1 development driver Alex Lynn was fourth, closely followed by Formula Renault 3.5 championship leader Oliver Rowland, who ground to a halt at the end of the session at the Bus Stop chicane.

Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly jumped up from 13th to sixth late on, demoting Sergey Sirotkin.

The top six had remained unchanged for the majority of the session as they were the only drivers to make it into the 1m57s, while many struggled to improve.

The session was littered with minor incidents that began with Swedish driver Gustav Malja - who is replacing Rene Binder at Trident while he recovers from a bacterial infection - losing the back end of his car and beaching it at the Bus Stop chicane, which brought out the yellow flags.

His team-mate for the weekend Raffaele Marciello also brought out the yellow flags after stopping at the end of the pitlane, following a near-miss with a Status car.

Arthur Pic lost his front wing in the closing seconds of the session when he collided with the barrier on the run down to Pouhon.

PRACTICE RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1m57.486s - 17
2 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1m57.640s 0.154s 16
3 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1m57.731s 0.245s 15
4 Alex Lynn DAMS 1m57.833s 0.347s 17
5 Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1m57.841s 0.355s 16
6 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1m57.871s 0.385s 17
7 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1m58.108s 0.622s 16
8 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1m58.141s 0.655s 13
9 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1m58.188s 0.702s 15
10 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1m58.231s 0.745s 15
11 Norman Nato Arden International 1m58.249s 0.763s 16
12 Sergio Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus 1m58.343s 0.857s 15
13 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1m58.446s 0.960s 15
14 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m58.463s 0.977s 16
15 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1m58.496s 1.010s 17
16 Andre Negrao Arden International 1m58.744s 1.258s 16
17 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1m58.822s 1.336s 13
18 Nathanael Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus 1m58.866s 1.380s 16
19 Julian Leal Carlin 1m58.884s 1.398s 15
20 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1m59.202s 1.716s 15
21 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1m59.209s 1.723s 19
22 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1m59.232s 1.746s 16
23 Robert Visoiu Rapax 1m59.610s 2.124s 17
24 Sean Gelael Carlin 2m00.683s 3.197s 16
25 Gustav Malja Trident 2m01.194s 3.708s 7

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