PRACTICE: Duerksen quickest for AIX Racing in wet Silverstone opener

Joshua Duerksen set the pace on the Wet weather tyres in Free Practice, ending the session quickest of all for AIX Racing. The Paraguayan set a 1:58.064 to finish the session on top, with Josep María Martí second for Campos Racing and teammate Taylor Barnard in third.

Championship leader Paul Aron was the first underneath the two-minute mark, setting a 1:59.526 on the Wet tyres to go fastest in the opening 10 minutes. Trident’s Roman Stanek slotted into second shortly afterwards, 0.395s down.

Zak O’Sullivan and DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford then set identical times, though the ART Grand Prix driver recorded his 1:59.884 first to claim P2, with the American third.

With just over 15 minutes remaining of the session, Andrea Kimi Antonelli went to the top briefly before teammate Oliver Bearman took over, going quickest after setting a 1:59.474 leaving the top three separated by just 0.052s.

After waiting to run a little longer, Martí put Campos at the top of the pile, recording a 1:58.693 to go seven-tenths of a second clear in P1.

Into the final 10 minutes of running, Duerksen went quicker still, lowering the benchmark time to a 1:58.064 in the AIX #24 car.

Franco Colapinto prompted plenty of drivers to return to the track on slick Hard Pirelli tyres, though they all struggled with the surface still damp around much of the circuit.

All that tried the white-walled tyre struggled to find the necessary grip, with late Yellow Flags courtesy of O’Sullivan running through the gravel at Stowe before rejoining the track, with Martí repeating the off just moments later.

Martí though wound up second quickest with Taylor Barnard putting in a late time to move himself up to third. Bearman and Antonelli followed in fourth and fifth, while Aron, O’Sullivan, Crawford, Stanek and Zane Maloney rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying for the Silverstone round is set to get underway at 15:00 local time later on Friday.