Dutchman enjoys his best session of the year in second practice
Dutchman Kelvin Snoeks had his best ever session in Formula Two during today’s second free practice session, running at the front for the majority of the half hour before recording the fastest time.
Snoeks seems to get on well with this circuit, with his best race in Formula Master last season occurring at this very track, and he built on a third place finish this morning by topping the timesheets in second practice – dipping into the 1m21s barrier twice, the only man to do so during the 30 minutes.
Jack Clarke was second, although he lost time mid way through the session after spinning into the gravel at turn five. He was unable to recover under his own steam, but was lifted out of the gravel by the marshals and returned to the track, setting his best time late on in the session.
Kazim Vasiliauskas showed good consistency to record the third fastest time, with Ricardo Teixeira continuing his impressive pace from the opening session to wind up the session in fourth.
This morning’s fastest man Sergey Afanasiev could only manage fifth this time around, while championship contenders Jolyon Palmer and Dean Stoneman were sixth and 11th.
Benjamin Bailly and Ebrahim were seventh and eighth while Johannes Theobald continued to impress on his F2 debut with the ninth fastest time.
The warm sunshine was a contrast to this morning’s grey and damp practice, but several drivers were still caught out by the technical nature of the Oschersleben track. Plamen Kralev had several excursions during the session, while Armaan Ebrahim twice went off at turn 12. Will Bratt and Ivan Samarin also had off track excursions on their way to 10th and 17th respectively. All drivers were able to continue.
With the top ten in each practice period separated by less than a second, qualifying is likely to be a close-run affair in which the championship contenders will be looking to move further up the order. Qualifying starts at 16.15CET, with live text commentary and live timing available from the Formula Two website.