Felix got the 2014 edition of the Grand Prix de Pau off to a promising start by going third fastest in Friday free practice on the streets of the French city.
The session got underway 15 minutes behind schedule following earlier incidents in the support categories, and was further delayed by a red-flag stoppage after Michele Beretta crashed at Pont Oscar 10 minutes from the end.
Felix wound up 0.262s off the ultimate pace set by home favourite Esteban Ocon, who stopped the clock in 1m10.688s to head Max Verstappen in second. Felix completed eight laps less than Ocon, who appeared eager to accumulate mileage and racked up a full 44 laps.
Behind the top three, Felix’s Mücke Motorsport team-mate Lucas Auer went fourth, enjoying a gap of over two tenths to fifth-placed Jake Dennis.
Roy Nissany and Antonio Fuoco were among others to join Beretta into the Pau barriers, with both drivers having to miss substantial parts of the session with damaged cars.
The first qualifying session of the weekend takes place at 16.40 local time.
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FELIX:
“A good, strong start to the weekend – it’s great to be back here in Pau! You can’t afford to set yourself back by a crash in practice here, so I didn’t take too many risks in this session – although I did lock up going into Turn 1 on my fastest lap. Still, the times were competitive and I think we’ve got every reason to be optimistic going into qualifying. By then, there will be no holding back, and it should be an intense afternoon!”
RESULTS
Pos. | No | Driver | Time | Gap | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Esteban Ocon / FRA Prema Powerteam | 1:10.688 | – | |
2 | 30 | Max Verstappen / NED Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:10.859 | 0.171 | |
3 | 27 | Felix Rosenqvist / SWE kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 1:10.950 | 0.262 | |
4 | 3 | Lucas Auer / AUT kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 1:11.083 | 0.395 | |
5 | 28 | Jake Dennis / GBR Carlin | 1:11.292 | 0.604 | |
6 | 31 | Tom Blomqvist / GBR Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1:11.385 | 0.697 | |
7 | 6 | Edward Jones / UAE Carlin | 1:11.434 | 0.746 | |
8 | 5 | Jordan King / GBR Carlin | 1:11.454 | 0.766 | |
9 | 7 | Riccardo Agostini / ITA Eurointernational | 1:11.461 | 0.773 | |
10 | 9 | Mitchell Gilbert / AUS Fortec Motorsports | 1:11.494 | 0.806 | |
11 | 21 | Félix Serrallés / USA Team West-TecF3 | 1:11.612 | 0.924 | |
12 | 19 | Antonio Giovinazzi / ITA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1:11.713 | 1.025 | |
13 | 1 | Nicholas Latifi / CAN Prema Powerteam | 1:11.728 | 1.040 | |
14 | 26 | Dennis van de Laar / NED Prema Powerteam | 1:11.729 | 1.041 | |
15 | 14 | Felipe Guimaraes / BRA Double R Racing | 1:11.874 | 1.186 | |
16 | 20 | Sean Gelael / INA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1:12.002 | 1.314 | |
17 | 16 | Gustavo Menezes / USA Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:12.053 | 1.365 | |
18 | 11 | Richard Goddard / GBR ThreeBond with T-Sport | 1:12.113 | 1.425 | |
19 | 10 | John Bryant-Meisner / SWE Fortec Motorsports | 1:12.128 | 1.440 | |
20 | 18 | Tatiana Calderón / COL Jo Zeller Racing | 1:12.448 | 1.760 | |
21 | 15 | Jules Szymkowiak / NED Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:12.506 | 1.818 | |
22 | 12 | Alexander Toril / ESP ThreeBond with T-Sport | 1:12.539 | 1.851 | |
23 | 8 | Michele Beretta / ITA Eurointernational | 1:13.500 | 2.812 | |
24 | 22 | Hector Hurst / GBR Team West-TecF3 | 1:13.673 | 2.985 |