PRACTICE: Tsolov comfortably quickest in opening Silverstone session

Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov topped Free Practice at Silverstone on a 1:45.847 to start his weekend on the front foot.

The Bulgarian was the only driver into the 1:45s, as Charlie Wurz followed in second for TRIDENT ahead of Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport in third.

Nicola Lacorte led the way in the very early stages on a 1:49.859, while tyre preparation laps got underway for the rest of the field.

Campos went 1-2 with under half an hour to go, as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak led teammate Mari Boya on a 1:46.379, 0.3s quicker than the Spaniard in P2.

Tsolov restored Campos’ 1-2 after several other improvements to cut the gap down to 0.184s behind the leader.

Tramnitz moved MP up to P2, 0.037s down on the best effort until Ugo Ugochukwu put PREMA Racing top of the pile on a 1:46.277.

Martinius Stenshorne and Wurz set personal bests to go second and third respectively, and within a tenth of the McLaren Development Driver in P1.

After drivers returned to the circuit for a second run in the final 10 minutes, further improvements began to flow in.

Rafael Câmara set a time to go quickest but lost it to exceeding track limits. Moments later, title rival Nikola Tsolov broke into the 1:45s to take the top spot, while Stenshorne and Ugochukwu posted improvements of their own that put them second and third.

Tramnitz closed the gap down to 0.291s as he went to P2 in the final five minutes. Câmara posted a time good enough for P4 as the chequered flag waved to bring an end to Free Practice, but teammate Wurz went up the order once again to P2, 0.289s off Tsolov’s session-topping time.

MP’s Tramnitz led Stenshorne and Câmara in the top five, ahead of Nikita Johnson for Hitech TGR, Ugochukwu, Tuukka Taponen, Bruno del Pino and Roman Bilinski, who rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying is set to get underway later on Friday at 14:00 local time.