Photo: Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda topped Formula 2 practice at the Red Bull Ring for the second successive weekend, while Prema’s Mick Schumacher crashed out.
Tsunoda set a 1m15.692s halfway through the session, and that benchmark remained at the top of the timesheet for the remainder of the session. He also topped free practice for last week’s season opener at the circuit.
Hitech GP’s Nikita Mazepin set the second fastest time of the session, 0.146 seconds adrift of Tsunoda’s best effort.
Jehan Daruvala, both team-mate to Tsunoda at Carlin and a fellow Red Bull junior, had a strong showing by completing the top three, narrowly ahead of Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto.
Giuliano Alesi completed the top five for HWA Racelab ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Renault junior Christian Lundgaard, Prema driver and reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Robert Shwartzman and DAMS’ Dan Ticktum.
Lundgaard’s team-mate Marcus Armstrong spun his car at the penultimate corner on his first flying lap in practice, but was able to rejoin the session later on unlike fellow Ferrari junior Schumacher.
The Prema driver went off the track at Turn 7 – the same place that he went out of second place in the feature race last Saturday – ending his session after just 10 minutes.
Armstrong recovered to set the ninth fastest time, with Campos Racing’s Jack Aitken rounding out the top 10.
Last week’s poleman Guanyu Zhou ended the session in 11th place for Virtuosi Racing, ahead of the 2019 feature race winner Nobuharu Matsushita (MP Motorsport) and points-leading Virtuosi team-mate Callum Ilott.
Sunday’s sprint race winner Felipe Drugovich was 20th in the classification, 1.615s slower than Tsunoda.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | 1m15.692s | 23 | |
| 2 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | 1m15.838s | +0.146s | 21 |
| 3 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 1m16.017s | +0.325s | 24 |
| 4 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | 1m16.045s | +0.353s | 20 |
| 5 | Giuliano Alesi | HWA Racelab | 1m16.066s | +0.374s | 22 |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | 1m16.100s | +0.408s | 23 |
| 7 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | 1m16.160s | +0.468s | 22 |
| 8 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | 1m16.217s | +0.525s | 22 |
| 9 | Marcus Armstrong | ART Grand Prix | 1m16.218s | +0.526s | 14 |
| 10 | Jack Aitken | Campos Racing | 1m16.262s | +0.570s | 21 |
| 11 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi Racing | 1m16.293s | +0.601s | 22 |
| 12 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | 1m16.319s | +0.627s | 25 |
| 13 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi Racing | 1m16.322s | +0.630s | 23 |
| 14 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | 1m16.470s | +0.778s | 24 |
| 15 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz Racing System | 1m16.576s | +0.884s | 25 |
| 16 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | 1m16.592s | +0.900s | 24 |
| 17 | Marino Sato | Trident | 1m16.737s | +1.045s | 23 |
| 18 | Roy Nissany | Trident | 1m16.741s | +1.049s | 22 |
| 19 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz Racing System | 1m16.899s | +1.207s | 25 |
| 20 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 1m17.307s | +1.615s | 24 |
| 21 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos Racing | 1m17.511s | +1.819s | 25 |
| 22 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | 1m28.122s | +12.430s | 4 |