Coletti fastest in Silverstone practice

The Comtec driver's time of 1m46.826s was over half a second clear of second-placed reigning Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion Albert Costa, who stopped on the circuit out of fuel late in the session.

"I know the new circuit from doing the GP3 race in the summer," said Coletti. "There was a big difference today from starting on very, very old tyres and the new tyres that we finished the session on, but I think we will be quite competitive.

"The half-second margin is good, but this is only practice and I am waiting to find out who else was running new tyres."

Tech 1 Racing's Daniel Ricciardo enters this penultimate round of the championship 10 points adrift of series leader Mikhail Aleshin. Ricciardo ended the morning third fastest, just 0.063s behind Costa.

Fortec team-mates Jon Lancaster and Sten Pentus claimed fourth and fifth positions, with P1 Motorsport's new pairing of Walter Grubmuller and Brendon Hartley next up. Former Tech 1 driver Hartley is substituting for Jan Charouz, who injured his ankle in training earlier this week.

Following his seventh place in the Le Mans Series meeting last weekend, Greg Mansell spent the morning readjusting to Formula Renault 3.5 and set the 13th fastest time.

"This feels much slower than the LMP1," said Mansell. "I think we're 60km/h slower down the straight, but then we're making up time in the mid-corners. I think it is probably the hardest adjustment that I have made all year, because I have all of these other reference points, but we should have a good weekend."

Championship leader Aleshin claimed 18th, while Esteban Guerrieri, third overall, was 22nd after completing just six laps.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m46.826s
 2.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m47.401s  + 0.575s
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m47.464s  + 0.638s
 4.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m47.477s  + 0.651s
 5.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m47.549s  + 0.723s
 6.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m47.601s  + 0.775s
 7.  Brendon Hartley    P1               1m47.822s  + 0.996s
 8.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m47.850s  + 1.024s
 9.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  1m48.169s  + 1.343s
10.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m48.322s  + 1.496s
11.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m48.326s  + 1.500s
12.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m48.443s  + 1.617s
13.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m48.475s  + 1.649s
14.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m48.634s  + 1.808s
15.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m48.684s  + 1.858s
16.  Jean Eric Vergne   Tech 1           1m48.759s  + 1.933s
17.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m48.863s  + 2.037s
18.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m48.877s  + 2.051s
19.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m49.036s  + 2.210s
20.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  1m49.098s  + 2.272s
21.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m49.113s  + 2.287s
22.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m49.231s  + 2.405s
23.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon  Euskadi 1m49.414s  + 2.588s
24.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     1m49.821s  + 2.995s