Ramos leads Spa FR3.5 practice

The Brazilian, who claimed pole position for the second race of the season at Aragon a fortnight ago, set the quickest time of 2m04.337s in the afternoon's second session.

ISR's Daniel Ricciardo finished an impressive second, 0.472s adrift of Ramos, in his first Formula Renault 3.5 meeting of the season. Ricciardo sat out the opening round in order drive for Toro Rosso in free practice at the Chinese Grand Prix. The Australian will be determined to make inroads into a 43 point deficit to series leader Alexander Rossi (Fortec), who was fourth quickest.

Having appeared less than content with his podium at Aragon, Albert Costa was all smiles in third, just 0.027s behind Ricciardo.

The EPIC Racing driver said: "I am happy, but there's still a big gap to Ramos. Things are much better than in Motorland [Aragon]. For me there were too many corners there where you are braking and turning at the same time. I like Spa, and I think most of the other tracks this year you are doing the majority of your braking in a straight line."

KMP Racing's Nelson Panciatici continued his strong form from round one to take fifth ahead of Robert Wickens. Carlin driver Wickens took a brief break from serious business by posting a joke picture on Twitter of watching the royal wedding from the cockpit of his Dallara.

Wickens' team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne headed the morning session with a fastest time of 2m05.27s. The British Formula 3 champion was half a second faster than BVM Target's Daniel Zampieri, who claimed second at Spa despite a drive-through penalty with Pons in 2010. Vergne had a more trying afternoon, finding the gravel at the Rivage hairpin.

Last year's Spa polesitter Jake Rosenzweig suffered engine trouble. "We were 5-10kph down, so we're changing the engine now," said the Mofaz driver.

Rosenzweig's team-mate Chris van der Drift did well to claim eighth spot, despite having only one set of new tyres following brake problems at Aragon that destroyed several sets of rubber.

Aragon race two victor Kevin Korjus was 22nd in the morning session and 19th in the afternoon. "We had some problems today," said the Estonian. "I think half the problem may be me, and then we also have some small problems with the car."

Korjus's Tech 1 Racing team boss Simon Abadie stated that he would be happy if the 18-year-old could finish in the top 10 in Saturday's race and in the top five on Sunday.

Session one:

Pos  Driver               Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Carlin           2m05.271s
 2.  Daniel Zampieri      Target           2m05.777s  + 0.506s
 3.  Robert Wickens       Carlin           2m05.890s  + 0.619s
 4.  Arthur Pic           Tech 1           2m05.901s  + 0.630s
 5.  Anton Nebylitskiy    KMP              2m05.953s  + 0.682s
 6.  Daniel Ricciardo     ISR              2m05.994s  + 0.723s
 7.  Albert Costa         EPIC             2m06.084s  + 0.813s
 8.  Daniil Move          P1               2m06.098s  + 0.827s
 9.  Walter Grubmuller    P1               2m06.110s  + 0.839s
10.  Alexander Rossi      Fortec           2m06.117s  + 0.846s
11.  Sergio Canamasas     Target           2m06.118s  + 0.847s
12.  Brendon Hartley      Gravity-Charouz  2m06.199s  + 0.928s
13.  Chris van der Drift  Mofaz            2m06.315s  + 1.044s
14.  Jan Charouz          Gravity-Charouz  2m06.420s  + 1.149s
15.  Nelson Panciatici    KMP              2m06.476s  + 1.205s
16.  Sten Pentus          EPIC             2m06.618s  + 1.347s
17.  Stephane Richelmi    Draco            2m06.685s  + 1.414s
18.  Andre Negrao         Draco            2m06.796s  + 1.525s
19.  Nathanael Berthon    ISR              2m06.891s  + 1.620s
20.  Cesar Ramos          Fortec           2m06.912s  + 1.641s
21.  Oliver Webb          Pons             2m07.002s  + 1.731s
22.  Kevin Korjus         Tech 1           2m07.116s  + 1.845s
23.  Jean-Karl Vernay     Pons             2m07.250s  + 1.979s
24.  Jake Rosenzweig      Mofaz            2m07.905s  + 2.634s
25.  Daniel McKenzie      Comtec           2m08.461s  + 3.190s
26.  Daniel de Jong       Comtec           2m08.745s  + 3.474s

Session two:

Pos  Driver               Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Cesar Ramos          Fortec           2m04.337s
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo     ISR              2m04.809s  + 0.472s
 3.  Albert Costa         EPIC             2m04.836s  + 0.499s
 4.  Alexander Rossi      Fortec           2m04.899s  + 0.562s
 5.  Nelson Panciatici    KMP              2m05.188s  + 0.851s
 6.  Robert Wickens       Carlin           2m05.195s  + 0.858s
 7.  Daniil Move          P1               2m05.237s  + 0.900s
 8.  Chris van der Drift  Mofaz            2m05.275s  + 0.938s
 9.  Walter Grubmuller    P1               2m05.385s  + 1.048s
10.  Sten Pentus          EPIC             2m05.405s  + 1.068s
11.  Sergio Canamasas     Target           2m05.430s  + 1.093s
12.  Brendon Hartley      Gravity-Charouz  2m05.455s  + 1.118s
13.  Stephane Richelmi    Draco            2m05.509s  + 1.172s
14.  Daniel Zampieri      Target           2m05.593s  + 1.256s
15.  Arthur Pic           Tech 1           2m05.633s  + 1.296s
16.  Jean-Karl Vernay     Pons             2m05.673s  + 1.336s
17.  Oliver Webb          Pons             2m05.838s  + 1.501s
18.  Jake Rosenzweig      Mofaz            2m05.846s  + 1.509s
19.  Kevin Korjus         Tech 1           2m05.968s  + 1.631s
20.  Nathanael Berthon    ISR              2m06.154s  + 1.817s
21.  Anton Nebylitskiy    KMP              2m06.181s  + 1.844s
22.  Jan Charouz          Gravity-Charouz  2m06.202s  + 1.865s
23.  Daniel de Jong       Comtec           2m06.711s  + 2.374s
24.  Daniel McKenzie      Comtec           2m06.914s  + 2.577s
25.  Andre Negrao         Draco            2m07.310s  + 2.973s
26.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Carlin           2m07.729s  + 3.392s