Lopez tops Nurburgring practice

In a fraught and tightly-fought 30-minute session, Lopez was just seven hundredths faster than Nicolas Lapierre in the Arden car, while Adam Carroll was just a further hundredth back in the rejuvenated racing Engineering car, which Roly Vincini is overseeing this weekend.

In fact, the times were so close that one second covered the top 18! Andreas Zuber was fourth for Trident despite running into the gravel trap, while Alex Premat took fifth in his ART.

Series leader Nelson Piquet Jr was down in 16th after a mechanical problem ended his session after eight minutes, while Lewis Hamilton was in ninth at a track he knows well after two seasons in the F3 Euroseries.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Lopez         Super Nova International  1:41.885  14
 2.  Lapierre      Arden International Ltd   1:41.959  13
 3.  Carroll       Racing Engineering        1:41.967  14
 4.  Zuber         Trident Racing            1:42.015  11
 5.  Premat        ART Grand Prix            1:42.100  14
 6.  Bruni         Trident Racing            1:42.110  14
 7.  Glock         BCN Competicion           1:42.156  12
 8.  Yoshimoto     BCN Competicion           1:42.232  14
 9.  Hamilton      ART Grand Prix            1:42.346  12
10.  Viso          iSport International      1:42.351  16
11.  Valles        Campos Racing             1:42.352  14
12.  Piccione      DPR                       1:42.546  15
13.  Perera        DAMS                      1:42.565  14
14.  Negrao        Piquet Sports             1:42.682  14
15.  Ammermueller  Arden International Ltd   1:42.702  14
16.  Piquet Jr.    Piquet Sports             1:42.741   5 
17.  Monfardini    DAMS                      1:42.772  15
18.  Gommendy      iSport International      1:42.945  17
19.  Pla           DPR                       1:42.974  14
20.  Fauzy         Super Nova International  1:43.379  14
21.  Di Grassi     Durango                   1:43.603  15
22.  Porteiro      Campos Racing             1:43.648  15
23.  Hernandez     Durango                   1:43.702  14
24.  Villa         Racing Engineering        1:43.781  14
25.  Filippi       FMS International         1:44.321  14
26.  Tahinci       FMS International         1:45.193  14