Barcelona, FP: Ghiotto on song in Spain

Luca Ghiotto signalled his intent to put the setback of Round 2 behind him, coming out on top with a dominant drive in FIA Formula 2 free practice at Barcelona, Spain ahead of DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi and PREMA’s Sean Gelael.

After the green light, Gelael set the initial pace in a1:31.655. PREMA were out on their own in the lead at first, as Mick Schumacher and Gelael interchanged between P1 and P2.

Louis Delétraz soon snapped into action and took his place at the top of the timings, before further ‘musical positions’ occurred. No sooner had the Swissman claimed P1, he was dethroned, firstly by Sérgio Sette Câmara and then by Gelael. The Indonesian was soon ousted himself, as teammate Schumacher raised the bar to 1:30.361.

The German driver would hold P1 for longer than his predecessors as Juan Manuel Correa ran off track at a corner and twisted into the gravel, bringing out a red flag. The session soon resumed with the Baku podium finisher not sustaining any damage to his car.

Following the restart, Ghiotto and Latifi made a statement of intent to take first and second in the timings by breaking the 1m 30s barrier. Not resting on their laurels, both drivers beat their own times on their way to cementing the positions. There was little movement behind them either, as Gelael, Guanyu Zhou and Sette Câmara completed the top five, followed by Jack Aitken, Nobuharu Matsushita, Schumacher, Nyck De Vries and Anthoine Hubert.

The rest of the pack will look to break up the early dominance of Ghiotto and Latifi and close the gap in Qualifying, when they return to The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at 4.55pm local time.