PRACTICE: Van Hoepen fastest in Barcelona for TRIDENT

Laurens van Hoepen ended Free Practice on top for TRIDENT, logging a 1:26.776 to narrowly beat DAMS Lucas Oil’s Roman Bilinski. Rodin Motorsport driver Alexander Dunne wound up just under a tenth of a second shy in third place.

With plenty of data already accumulated around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it was a subdued start to the session before Nikola Tsolov set the first time to beat on a 1:27.136.

Several drivers including Alexander Dunne, Sebastián Montoya, Kush Maini, Martinius Stenshorne and Nico Varrone got within a tenth of the Bulgarian’s time, but the benchmark fell once again.

van Hoepen bettered the Campos driver’s time and put in a 1:26.776 to lead as the first driver under the 1:27s.

Dunne improved on his next lap to get within 0.070s of the top time, but Bilinski edged ahead of the Irishman to go second quickest, 0.051s down on van Hoepen.

The Red Flags were waving with 12 minutes to go after a spin for Noel León left the Mexican driver beached in the gravel.

Once the Campos was cleared away, the session resumed with three minutes remaining but there were no further improvements.

It meant that after van Hoepen, Bilinski and Dunne in the top three, Rafael Villagómez finished fourth with Stenshorne P5.

Gabriele Minì wound up sixth ahead of Rafael Câmara, Colton Herta, Tsolov and Montoya, who rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying is set to go green at 15:55 local time on Friday afternoon.