PRACTICE: Vesti heads PREMA Racing 1-2 in Barcelona

Frederik Vesti started the Barcelona weekend where he left off in Monte Carlo, ending the opening session of the weekend P1 for PREMA Racing. The Dane set a 1:26.722 to lead from Oliver Bearman, as the Italian team looked comfortable around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Jehan Daruvala was third for MP Motorsport, 0.3s down on Vesti’s session-topping effort.

After several installation laps, Dennis Hauger set a 1:27.172 to lead early on. That was soon beaten by teammate Daruvala’s 1:27.084 to make it an MP Motorsport 1-2.

A Red Flag was thrown with just over 20 minutes to go following a spin for Victor Martins coming out of Turn 10. The ART Grand Prix driver lost the back end of his car on corner exit and couldn’t get going again.

Back to green flag running with 18 minutes to go, there was no rush to get back on track. As the clock ticked into the final third of the session though, plenty returned to the track for their final laps before Qualifying.

Vesti went to the top of the times for PREMA, setting a 1:26.722, leading from teammate Bearman inside the final 10 minutes by just over a tenth of a second.

Enzo Fittipaldi made a late improvement to jump up into third position until he lost his time for exceeding track limits. The Brazilian’s next lap put him into the top five on a 1:27.194, behind the MP pair in third and fourth.

Ayumu Iwasa finished the session sixth, 0.019s clear of Théo Pourchaire in seventh. Jack Doohan, Richard Verschoor and Zane Maloney rounded out the top 10 in Free Practice.

Qualifying gets underway at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at 15:55 local time.