Silverstone F2: Ferrari F1 junior Leclerc fastest ahead of Rowland
Ferrari Formula 1 junior driver Charles Leclerc led the way in Formula 2 practice at Silverstone ahead of his nearest championship challenger Oliver Rowland
Leclerc moved to the top of the times early on in the 45-minute session, which was held on Thursday afternoon instead of its usual Friday slot as part of an experiment with the timetable of the support races at Silverstone.
DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi was the first man to improve on that time, before Leclerc improved to retake first place.
Rowland, who is targeting an improved qualifying performance in front of his home crowd, moved to the top spot as the session approached its halfway mark, but Leclerc hit back almost immediately with a time of 1m40.793s to go back to top spot once more.
That time was the benchmark across the mid-session lull, but Prema Racing driver Leclerc was able to improve again during the second half and ended up with a best time of 1m40.695s.
Rowland also bettered his best time to a 1m41.010s, but wound up 0.315 seconds adrift of Leclerc, who is chasing a record-equalling sixth consecutive qualifying pole position in the F1 support category.
Russian Time driver Luca Ghiotto was third fastest, ahead of Latifi and Red Bull Ring race two winner Artem Markelov.
Sergio Canamasas was sixth for Rapax with Briton Jordan King - a winner at Silverstone last year in the series' previous GP2 guise - seventh at his home track.
Nyck de Vries ended up eighth ahead of Arden International's Norman Nato, who lost a piece of bodywork from the right-hand side of his car as he headed down the Hangar straight just before the halfway point after it had been flapping around during the early stages.
Louis Deletraz rounded out the top 10 for Racing Engineering.
Antonio Fuoco was 13th in the second Prema-run car, ahead of the ART Grand Prix pair Nobuharu Matsushita and Alexander Albon.
The third British driver in the field - European Formula 3 racer Callum Ilott, who is making his F2 debut in a one-off appearance for the Trident squad - finished in 18th place.
PRACTICE TIMES:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Prema Racing | 1m40.695s | - | 17 |
| 2 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 1m41.010s | 0.315s | 18 |
| 3 | Luca Ghiotto | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m41.247s | 0.552s | 16 |
| 4 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1m41.283s | 0.588s | 17 |
| 5 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m41.316s | 0.621s | 17 |
| 6 | Sergio Canamasas | Rapax | 1m41.328s | 0.633s | 17 |
| 7 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 1m41.329s | 0.634s | 19 |
| 8 | Nyck de Vries | Rapax | 1m41.359s | 0.664s | 20 |
| 9 | Norman Nato | Pertamina Arden | 1m41.377s | 0.682s | 19 |
| 10 | Louis Deletraz | Racing Engineering | 1m41.631s | 0.936s | 18 |
| 11 | Sergio Sette Camara | MP Motorsport | 1m41.660s | 0.965s | 16 |
| 12 | Gustav Malja | Racing Engineering | 1m41.742s | 1.047s | 13 |
| 13 | Antonio Fuoco | Prema Racing | 1m41.755s | 1.060s | 16 |
| 14 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m41.824s | 1.129s | 18 |
| 15 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 1m41.885s | 1.190s | 17 |
| 16 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Arden | 1m42.224s | 1.529s | 19 |
| 17 | Ralph Boschung | Campos Racing | 1m42.284s | 1.589s | 15 |
| 18 | Callum Ilott | Trident | 1m42.314s | 1.619s | 17 |
| 19 | Nabil Jeffri | Trident | 1m42.317s | 1.622s | 17 |
| 20 | Robert Visoiu | Campos Racing | 1m42.677s | 1.982s | 18 |
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