Silverstone, FP: Haryanto leads the way in Silverstone

Rio Haryanto’s good form has carried over to Silverstone where the Indonesian topped the timesheets in this morning’s free practice session, leading the way ahead of Williams test driver Alex Lynn and McLaren tester (and points leader) Stoffel Vandoorne by less than a tenth.

The Indonesian driver stopped the clock with a time of 1:40.659, half a second quicker that Raffaele Marciello’s best time in this session last year, a third of the way through the session on a clear track when most of his rivals had returned to the pits for fresh tyres and, despite having plenty of time left, they were unable to match his time.

The session got underway under glorious sunny conditions, with Pierre Gasly, Johnny Cecotto, Marciello, Alexander Rossi and Vandoorne all setting the early pace. The Belgian looked to have the session under control when he returned to the pits for new tyres and a debrief, but Haryanto stayed out to take advantage of the clear track, stealing the top spot in the process.

Alex Lynn had been close to the quick times all session long, and threw everything he had at the top spot with 8 minutes remaining: the Englishman ran a great lap by missed out by just 3 thousandths in a period where few of his rivals improved, a good sign for qualifying this afternoon, but just behind him countryman Nick Yelloly, Rossi, Arthur Pic, Gasly, Marciello, Sergey Sirotkin and Jordan King, who will all be looking to break into the top 3 in just a few hours’ time.