PRACTICE: Paul Aron sets the pace for Hitech Pulse-Eight in opening Lusail session

Paul Aron was in impressive form in Formula 2’s first session at the Lusail International Circuit after finishing at the top of the Practice leaderboard thanks to a time of 1:38.024.

The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver was in eye catching form throughout as he ended up 0.642s clear of Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto. MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor rounded out the top three.

However, it was ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins that led the way early on, going to the top of the leaderboard on a 1:43.018, eclipsing DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford by just 0.001s.

But as the first set of laps were completed, the Virtual Safety Car was signalled after DAMS’ debutant Dino Beganovic stopped on track with an issue.

Action resumed with 33 minutes left on the clock and as the drivers rounded the track for their second flying laps it was Championship leader Bortoleto that went fastest.

The Invicta Racing driver completed a lap of 1:40.366 to eclipse title rival Aron by just 0.008s, with Martins now four tenths off in third.

The times continued to drop as the track ramped up but this time it was Aron who was quickest with a 1:39.236 putting him three-tenths clear of Bortoleto as Martins once again ended up in P3.

Aron went even quicker on his next two attempts, first moving to a 1:38.926, before going over nine tenths faster on his next lap to drop the benchmark time to 1:38.024.

Bortoleto was his nearest challenger, but the Brazilian driver was over six-tenths behind in the end, while Oliver Goethe went to P3 for MP, 0.917s off the top time.

However, there was 17 minutes left on the clock when the drivers were forced to return to the pit lane after ART’s Luke Browning beached his car in the gravel at Turn 9 following a spin, bringing out the Red Flags.

The green flag was waved with under nine minutes left leading to a flurry of activity in the pit lane as the drivers came out for their final laps of the sessions.

There was late movement on the leaderboard as Verschoor went ahead of his MP teammate Goethe to move to P3.

But that was the last bit of action as Crawford spun into the gravel at Turn 14 just as the chequered flag was waved, bringing an end to the session.

The drivers will now return to the Lusail paddock to look over the data as they prepare for Qualifying later today at 19:10 local time.