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Martins leads Colapinto in first Eurocup free practice session at Spa

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Clément Luck / DPPI

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins set the pace in Wednesday afternoon free practice for the Formula Renault Eurocup at Spa-Francorchamps.

Having topped the wet morning session in the day’s pre-event test, Martins continued to show pace in the first practice of the weekend.

The championship leader was the only driver to set a time sub-2m16s, managing a lap in 2m15.919s late in the session.

That lap put him 0.293s ahead of MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto, and a further quarter-second clear of ART team-mate and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Paul Aron.

It was a relatively incident free session, but Aron suffered with limited running, completing only seven laps while most of the rest of the field managed around twice as many. Despite the relative lack of running, he ran at the sharp end throughout.

Early pacesetter Lorenzo Colombo was fourth quickest for Bhaitech, ahead of Renault F1 junior Caio Collet (R-ace GP) and Ugo de Wilde (Arden)

De Wilde’s team-mate Alex Quinn dropped back to seventh after running in the top three early on, while title contender David Vidales (JD Motorsport), Gregoire Saucy (ART GP) and Renault junior Hadrien David (MP) completed the top 10.

Kas Haverkort started his second weekend in the championship by going 13th fastest for MP. The Spanish Formula 4 points leader was 1.652s off the pace.

Free practice results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Victor Martins ART Grand Prix 2m15.919s 10
2 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport 2m16.212s +0.293s 16
3 Paul Aron ART Grand Prix 2m16.487s +0.568s 7
4 Lorenzo Colombo Bhaitech 2m16.524s +0.605s 15
5 Caio Collet R-ace GP 2m16.535s +0.616s 12
6 Ugo de Wilde Arden 2m16.980s +1.061s 14
7 Alex Quinn Arden 2m17.005s +1.086s 16
8 David Vidales JD Motorsport 2m17.080s +1.161s 16
9 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 2m17.232s +1.313s 8
10 Hadrien David MP Motorsport 2m17.235s +1.316s 16
11 William Alatalo JD Motorsport 2m17.268s +1.349s 17
12 Amaury Cordeel FA Racing by Manor 2m17.547s +1.628s 10
13 Kas Haverkort MP Motorsport 2m17.571s +1.652s 16
14 Tijmen van der Helm FA Racing by Manor 2m17.639s +1.720s 16
15 Reshad de Gerus Arden 2m18.175s +2.256s 16
16 Petr Ptacek R-ace GP 2m18.227s +2.308s 12
17 Laszlo Toth Bhaitech 2m18.507s +2.588s 10
18 Nicola Marinangeli Bhaitech 2m18.585s +2.666s 11