PRACTICE: Fornaroli in strong form as he sets the pace in Lusail for Invicta Racing

Leonardo Fornaroli kicked off his Lusail weekend in strong form, setting the fastest time of the Free Practice session with a 1:38.656.

The Invicta Racing driver completed that time with his final lap of the 45-minute outing, with Hitech TGR’s Dino Beganovic in second and Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne in third.

After the first set of laps though, it was MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor who topped the timesheets with a 1:41.163, with Fornaroli in second, over two-tenths behind.

Fornaroli then led the way with a 1:40.342, but it was close at the top, as Verschoor and Victor Martins went to within 0.080s off the Italian’s leading time.

Luke Browning then took over at the top on a 1:39.701, while Verschoor made things even closer, going to within 0.009s of his title rival, as Fornaroli settled into P3.

Browning lowered the time to beat on his next attempt with a 1:39.285, and this time he was followed by the Invicta pairing of Fornaroli and Roman Stanek.

The Hitech TGR driver then ducked into the pitlane after that lap but the Championship leader continued on and went fastest on a 1:39.064.

Browning had then been on a quicker lap but ran wide in the final sector. However, his teammate Beganovic continued to fly the Hitech flag going to P2, 0.044s off Fornaroli’s time.

As the session entered its final stages, the drivers were still finding time on their Hard tyres, with Dunne jumping up to third.

Fornaroli continued to set the standard and improved to 1:38.656 on his final lap, although Beganovic closed to the gap to 0.102s moments later. Dunne finished third ahead of Browning, as Stanek rounded out the top five.

Verschoor led MP teammate Oliver Goethe in seventh, with Martinius Stenshorne eighth in his first session for Rodin Motorsport. Rafael Villagómez was ninth for Van Amersfoort Racing, while Jak Crawford completed the top 10 for DAMS Lucas Oil.

That wraps up the opening session of the weekend, with the drivers set to hit the track at 19:10 local time later today for Qualifying.