GP2 Austria: Sergey Sirotkin tops Red Bull Ring practice
Sergey Sirotkin topped the opening free practice session for the fourth round of the GP2 championship in Austria
The Rapax driver lapped the Red Bull Ring in a time of 1m14.880s to prevail in a battle at the top of the timesheets with Russian Time's Mitch Evans and ART's McLaren junior Stoffel Vandoorne.
All three had spells at the top of the times, as did DAMS driver Pierre Gasly, before Sirotkin reclaimed the top spot he held early on with 18 minutes remaining.
That put him three-tenths ahead of Evans, with Vandoorne a further 22-thousandths back.
By then many had enjoyed the best of the tyres, with a red flag caused by Gasly grinding to a halt on track with a car problem hindering some drivers' attempts to improve, although there were some late fast laps
Alexander Rossi jumped into fourth place ahead of Alex Lynn with 90 seconds remaining.
Raffaele Marciello also had a late attempt to improve, but fell four-tenths short, so ended up in sixth place ahead of Gasly.
Rio Haryanto, Arthur Pic and Nick Yelloly rounded out the top 10, with Jordan King and Richie Stanaway sealing 11th and 12th places late in the session.
GP2 returnee Simon Trummer was slowest after taking over Johnny Cecotto's place at Hilmer Motorsport, the Swiss settling back into the category having competed at Le Mans last weekend for the ByKolles CLM LMP1 squad.
PRACTICE TIMES:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1m14.880s | - | 26 |
| 2 | Mitch Evans | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m15.201s | 0.321s | 21 |
| 3 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1m15.223s | 0.343s | 23 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1m15.272s | 0.392s | 17 |
| 5 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1m15.279s | 0.399s | 24 |
| 6 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1m15.407s | 0.527s | 22 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1m15.503s | 0.623s | 19 |
| 8 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1m15.568s | 0.688s | 23 |
| 9 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1m15.569s | 0.689s | 21 |
| 10 | Nick Yelloly | Hilmer Motorsport | 1m15.678s | 0.798s | 23 |
| 11 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m15.692s | 0.812s | 21 |
| 12 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1m15.701s | 0.821s | 23 |
| 13 | Rene Binder | Trident | 1m15.710s | 0.830s | 24 |
| 14 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1m15.736s | 0.856s | 22 |
| 15 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1m15.817s | 0.937s | 23 |
| 16 | Robert Visoiu | Rapax | 1m15.971s | 1.091s | 25 |
| 17 | Marco Sorensen | Carlin | 1m16.069s | 1.189s | 25 |
| 18 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1m16.073s | 1.193s | 23 |
| 19 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m16.099s | 1.219s | 24 |
| 20 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1m16.236s | 1.356s | 22 |
| 21 | Zoel Amberg | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1m16.343s | 1.463s | 22 |
| 22 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1m16.422s | 1.542s | 22 |
| 23 | Nathanael Berthon | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1m16.582s | 1.702s | 13 |
| 24 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m16.701s | 1.821s | 20 |
| 25 | Simon Trummer | Hilmer Motorsport | 1m16.878s | 1.998s | 20 |
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