Jokinen fastest in F2 practice
Newcomers Johan Jokinen and Dean Stoneman set the pace on the first day of the Formula 2 season at Silverstone, with Jokinen's 1m37.851s lap in the afternoon session the best of the practice day
Formula 3 graduate Jokinen had been fourth in the morning, when he was also reprimanded for completing an additional lap after the chequered flag. He made up for that indiscretion with a commanding run in practice two, setting a series of fastest times and ending up four tenths of a second clear of nearest rival Jolyon Palmer.
"Everything just fell into place in this session," said Jokinen. "The car felt great on the circuit, the set-up was almost perfect for the circuit as it now, and when I went out on new tyres everything seemed to just flow.
"In the first session I focused on trying to do a race simulation and that went very well, so in the second I made it my aim to go for a fast lap - I needed to see if the set up was that good, and clearly it was."
Sergey Afanasiev was third in the afternoon, followed by Kelvin Snoeks and Tom Gladdis.
Earlier Stoneman had narrowly edged out fellow home driver Jack Clarke to take the honours in the first practice session. Philipp Eng had been third on that occasion, ahead of Jokinen.
The cloud of volcanic ash which has caused severe disruption to air travel across northern Europe also proved a headache for the F2 field. Kazim Vasiliauskas, Nicola de Marco and Plamen Kralev all drove through the night to reach Silverstone after their intended flights were grounded.
In his first run since last winter, Vasiliauskas was just outside the top ten in both sessions. The Lithuanian is the leading returnee from F2's class of 2009, but had to miss pre-season testing due to sponsorship issues and only secured a last-minute deal to compete this weekend.
Practice one: Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Dean Stoneman 1m37.932s 2. Jack Clarke 1m38.022s + 0.090s 3. Philipp Eng 1m38.387s + 0.455s 4. Johan Jokinen 1m38.492s + 0.560s 5. Sergei Afanasiev 1m38.541s + 0.609s 6. Tom Gladdis 1m38.559s + 0.627s 7. Armaan Ebrahim 1m38.574s + 0.642s 8. Benjamin Bailly 1m38.687s + 0.755s 9. Mihai Marinescu 1m38.736s + 0.804s 10. Jolyon Palmer 1m38.808s + 0.876s 11. Kazim Vasiliauskas 1m38.828s + 0.896s 12. Nicola de Marco 1m38.863s + 0.931s 13. Will Bratt 1m39.029s + 1.097s 14. Ivan Samarin 1m39.432s + 1.500s 15. Kelvin Snoeks 1m39.445s + 1.513s 16. Natalia Kowalska 1m39.805s + 1.873s 17. Paul Rees 1m39.861s + 1.929s 18. Benjamin Lariche 1m39.887s + 1.955s 19. Parthiva Sureshwaren 1m40.280s + 2.348s 20. Plamen Kralev 1m40.918s + 2.986s 21. Ajith Kumar 1m44.925s + 6.993s 22. Ricardo Teixeira 1m45.032s + 7.100s Practice two: Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Johan Jokinen 1m37.851s 2. Jolyon Palmer 1m38.259s + 0.408s 3. Sergei Afanasiev 1m38.389s + 0.538s 4. Kelvin Snoeks 1m38.412s + 0.561s 5. Tom Gladdis 1m38.460s + 0.609s 6. Will Bratt 1m38.475s + 0.624s 7. Jack Clarke 1m38.603s + 0.752s 8. Philipp Eng 1m38.637s + 0.786s 9. Mihai Marinescu 1m38.781s + 0.930s 10. Armaan Ebrahim 1m38.894s + 1.043s 11. Kazim Vasiliauskas 1m38.937s + 1.086s 12. Benjamin Bailly 1m39.245s + 1.394s 13. Dean Stoneman 1m39.397s + 1.546s 14. Ricardo Teixeira 1m39.650s + 1.799s 15. Nicola de Marco 1m39.687s + 1.836s 16. Benjamin Lariche 1m39.899s + 2.048s 17. Natalia Kowalska 1m39.910s + 2.059s 18. Ivan Samarin 1m40.267s + 2.416s 19. Paul Rees 1m40.355s + 2.504s 20. Parthiva Sureshwaren 1m40.903s + 3.052s 21. Plamen Kralev 1m41.637s + 3.786s 22. Ajith Kumar 1m44.459s + 6.608s
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