Audi junior Slater untouchable in FIA F3 practice at home at Silverstone

Photo: Audi F1 Team

Home hero Freddie Slater stormed to top spot in FIA Formula 3 practice, the Audi junior’s opening lap time unbeatable across the 45 minute session.

Campos Racing”s Ernesto Rivera was Slater’s closest challenger in second followed by Matteo de Palo completing the top three.

MP Motorsport’s Tuukka Taponen was first to lay down a representative lap time of a 1m47.752s. His teammate Alessandro Guisti thought he had stolen top spot early on only for his time to be deleted for track limits.

Taponen held top spot up until the half hour mark when Hitech’s Jin Nakamura replaced him at the sharp end with a 1m47.337s.

Red Bull junior Rivera continued his and Campos’ impressive form as he moved to the top with a 1m46.740s before Slater displaced him with a 1m46.161s to go over half a second clear.

Louis Sharp moved his Prema into the top three, 0.864s behind Slater, before McLaren junior de Palo set a 1m46.581s to take over his place.

Rivera closed the gap to Slater to 0.266s after the British driver had run wide at Stowe on his fastest lap.

With 20 minutes to go drivers returned to the pits, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi the only notable improvement as the Japanese driver shot up the order from 14th to fourth, 0.515s adrift of Slater.

Having had his opening lap deleted for track limits, Guisti too shot up the order from 28th to seventh.

After spending the opening half hour in the pitlane, Noah Stromsted moved his Trident into sixth while his teammate de Palo made it a Trident one-two, sitting 0.212s behind teammate Slater.

Trident’s one-two was short lived though as Rivera split the pair once more with a 1m46.319s leaving him 0.158s shy of top spot. Meanwhile his teammate and championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu continued to struggle only managing 10th.

Yamakoshi and teammate Enzo Deligny moved into the top five, Yamakoshi leading the duo, 0.351s adrift of Slater.

Slater’s opening lap time continued to prove untouchable, with Rodin’s Pedro Clerot being sent airborne at Stowe on his attempt to topple the British driver.

With five minutes remaining the virtual safety car neutralised running as part of an FIA safety test.

Free practice results