Photo: Joe Portlock / FIA F3 Championship
Max Fewtrell lapped quickest in free practice ahead of his home FIA Formula 3 round at Silverstone.
The Renault junior driver, fresh from a maiden podium in the opening race at the last round in Austria, took top spot away from his ART Grand Prix team-mate David Beckmann with four minutes to go.
Trident’s Devlin DeFrancesco soon deposed him, before Yifei Ye continued a strong session for Hitech by becoming the first driver to dip underneath the 1m46s mark with two minutes remaining.
Fewtrell then bettered that by over three tenths of a second with 20 seconds left on the clock, posting a 1m45.264s.
His team-mate Christian Lundgaard went underneath Fewtrell’s sector one benchmark before being held up by series debutant Federico Malvestiti in the middle of the lap, leaving the Dane seventh at the finish.
DeFrancesco improved again late on to go second, with Beckmann third and Ye fourth.
Lirim Zendeli went fifth at the end of the session despite catching traffic in the form of Marcus Armstrong, while Yuki Tsunoda was sixth.?Behind Lundgaard, Raoul Hyman made it two Sauber Junior cars in the top eight.
Leonardo Pulcini led much of the session for Trident and ended up ninth, with his Red Bull Ring-winning team-mate Juri Vips 14th having also been fastest earlier on.
Prema had a quiet session, with Jehan Daruvala its best driver in 10th. Championship leader Robert Shwartzman was 12th, while Armstrong was 20th.
Practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Fewtrell | ART Grand Prix | 1:45.264 | 18 | |
| 2 | Devlin Defrancesco | Trident | 1:45.487 | 0.223 | 18 |
| 3 | David Beckmann | ART Grand Prix | 1:45.583 | 0.319 | 19 |
| 4 | Yifei Ye | Hitech Grand Prix | 1:45.606 | 0.342 | 20 |
| 5 | Lirim Zendeli | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1:45.672 | 0.408 | 19 |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:45.779 | 0.515 | 20 |
| 7 | Christian Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | 1:45.998 | 0.734 | 19 |
| 8 | Raoul Hyman | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1:46.185 | 0.921 | 19 |
| 9 | Leonardo Pulcini | Hitech Grand Prix | 1:46.222 | 0.958 | 15 |
| 10 | Jehan Daruvala | Prema Racing | 1:46.264 | 1.000 | 15 |
| 11 | Fabio Scherer | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1:46.270 | 1.006 | 20 |
| 12 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema Racing | 1:46.396 | 1.132 | 16 |
| 13 | Felipe Drugovich | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:46.428 | 1.164 | 17 |
| 14 | Juri Vips | Hitech Grand Prix | 1:46.553 | 1.289 | 17 |
| 15 | Niko Kari | Trident | 1:46.578 | 1.314 | 16 |
| 16 | Pedro Piquet | Trident | 1:46.681 | 1.417 | 16 |
| 17 | Sebastian Fernandez | Campos Racing | 1:46.743 | 1.479 | 18 |
| 18 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:46.767 | 1.503 | 17 |
| 19 | Andreas Estner | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:46.843 | 1.579 | 21 |
| 20 | Marcus Armstrong | Prema Racing | 1:46.850 | 1.586 | 14 |
| 21 | Alex Peroni | Campos Racing | 1:47.096 | 1.832 | 17 |
| 22 | Liam Lawson | MP Motorsport | 1:47.201 | 1.937 | 17 |
| 23 | Simo Laaksonen | MP Motorsport | 1:47.220 | 1.956 | 16 |
| 24 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1:47.235 | 1.971 | 16 |
| 25 | Teppei Natori | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:47.477 | 2.213 | 18 |
| 26 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | 1:47.637 | 2.373 | 18 |
| 27 | Federico Malvestiti | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:47.876 | 2.612 | 21 |
| 28 | Keyvan Andres | HWA Racelab | 1:48.315 | 3.051 | 19 |
| 29 | Bent Viscaal | HWA Racelab | 1:48.946 | 3.682 | 19 |
| 30 | Alessio Deledda | Campos Racing | 1:49.124 | 3.860 | 20 |