Vips leads second Free Practice at the FIA F3 World Cup

Jüri Vips led an incident-interrupted final Free Practice session, as the team’s scrambled to fit in their final preparations ahead of the second Qualifying session, at the FIA F3 World Cup. The Estonian looked confident around the streets of Macau, setting a time of 2:06.569, ahead of Callum Ilott and Richard Verschoor, who lapped nearly five tenths slower.

Logan Sargeant was the first driver out onto the Guia Circuit in the morning, but opted for a slower installation lap, as he set about getting to grips with the twisty street track once more. His time of 2m 20s was swiftly smashed by Robert Shwarztman, who powered round his first flying lap to set the marker at 2m 8s.

Sophia Floersch brought a brief half to proceedings as her car got stuck at the Melco Hairpin, and when things got back underway, there was a familiar name at the top. Dan Ticktum flexed his muscles to take the times down to 2:07.670, narrowly ahead of Vips, while Macau rookie Liam Lawson impressed in third place.

Shwartzman fought around the circuit to climb back to second place, but lapped 0.089s off Ticktum. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda broke into the top ten, following a tough first day in Macau.

Marcus Armstrong and Ilott began to hit their stride at the hallway point, and started a tussle at the top of the timesheet, exchanging first place. The Briton eventually won the battle by taking the times under 2m 7s for the first time.

With just over five minutes to go, Vips sliced a further chunk out of the laptimes, before action was brought to a half with a red flag. David Beckmann misjudged the corner ahead of the final straight and clipped into the wall. Ticktum didn’t slow down enough behind him and was forced into the wall as well, which brought out a red flag and the end of the session.

That meant that Vips’ time wouldn’t be beaten, as Ilott and Verschoor completed the top three. Armstrong finished just a tenth behind the Dutchman, ahead of his impressive compatriot Lawson. Ticktum, Arjun Maini, Shwartzman, Oliver Caldwell and Logan Sargeant completed the top ten.

Provisional poleman Jake Hughes will be the man to beat this afternoon, having topped yesterday’s first Free Qualifying session. Times are expect to tumble in the second Qualifying though, which will start at 3.10pm (local time).