Less than a week after two thrilling races, Formula Two returned to Silverstone for the second of two consecutive race weekends on British soil.
Teams have spent the last few days reviewing data ahead of another hectic weekend in which Pirelli swapped out the medium compound for soft tyres, forcing teams to adapt to a new compound in Qualifying.
Now here is a roundup of Friday’s action across Practice and Qualifying.
Practice
Nobuharu Matsushita was first out onto the track for Practice although Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala was the first driver to set a representative lap time of 1m 41.289 from teammate – Yuki Tsunoda as Christian Lundgaard went third fastest.
Times soon began to tumble though despite a spin from Giuliano Alesi at Brooklands as Mick Schumacher led Robert Shwartzman in a Prema One-Two come the halfway mark with a 1m 39.783 which was the best time of the session.
Nikita Mazepin went top briefly with a 1m 39.383 but his time was deleted after he exceeded track limits at Stowe with foot on the gas as he ran wide, meaning that he ended Practice in 13th position.
Marino Sato’s practice came to a fiery end after just 30 minutes when his Trident caught alight on the exit of Club corner, triggering a red flag as marshals recovered the car after stopping the fire.
Once the session resumed, nobody improved as Schumacher topped the timesheet ahead of Dan Ticktum and Louis Deletraz with Shwartzman forced to settle for fourth ahead of Sean Gelael, Tsunoda, Jack Aitken, Daruvala, Guanyu Zhou and Lundgaard.
Callum Ilott finished just outside the top ten with the 11th quickest time which was just 0.042s slower than Lundgaard’s time.
Qualifying
Qualifying was delayed by 15 minutes due to a damaged kerb but Daruvala was first out ahead of Marcus Armstrong when the light went green, with the threat of rain in the air.
Lundgaard however would be the fastest after the first set of flying laps as he led from Tsunoda, Deletraz, Aitken and Shwartzman, of which only Aitken proceeded to improve on his second flier as Luca Ghiotto, Mazepin and Zhou rounded out the top five at the halfway mark.
HWA Racelab’s Artem Markelov opted to do his final run in the gap as everyone else pitted, which saw him record a 1m 40.094 which eventually put him 18th on the grid once everyone else had headed back out.
Lundgaard failed to improve on his first flier of his final run whereas Ilott found time in the final sector to snatch pole by 0.115s from the Dane, who would of taken second from Ilott in the drivers’ standings if he had taken pole position instead.
Gelael suffered a spin at Copse on his final flier which consequently ruined the last laps of everyone else, meaning that Ilott took pole and cut the gap to championship leader – Shwartzman down to just four points as the Russian only qualified 11th on the grid.
Aitken, Ticktum, Ghiotto, Zhou, Mazepin, Schumacher, Deletraz and Tsunoda complete the top ten qualifiers.
Results
Practice
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | 1m 39.783 |
| 2 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | + 0.031 |
| 3 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | + 0.201 |
| 4 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | + 0.261 |
| 5 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | + 0.369 |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | + 0.406 |
| 7 | Jack Aitken | Campos | + 0.469 |
| 8 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | + 0.497 |
| 9 | Guanyu Zhou | Uni-Virtuosi | + 0.500 |
| 10 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | + 0.527 |
| 11 | Callum Ilott | Uni-Virtuosi | + 0.565 |
| 12 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | + 0.567 |
| 13 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | + 0.587 |
| 14 | Marcus Armstrong | ART GP | + 0.709 |
| 15 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | + 0.816 |
| 16 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | + 0.863 |
| 17 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | + 1.272 |
| 18 | Giuliano Alesi | HWA Racelab | + 1.513 |
| 19 | Marino Sato | Trident | + 1.585 |
| 20 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | + 1.768 |
| 21 | Roy Nissany | Trident | + 1.929 |
| 22 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | + 2.933 |
Qualifying
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Callum Ilott | Uni-Virtuosi | 1m 39.062 |
| 2 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | + 0.115 |
| 3 | Jack Aitken | Campos | + 0.216 |
| 4 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | + 0.264 |
| 5 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | + 0.300 |
| 6 | Guanyu Zhou | Uni-Virtuosi | + 0.332 |
| 7 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | + 0.348 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | + 0.386 |
| 9 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | + 0.412 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsundoa | Carlin | + 0.432 |
| 11 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +0.463 |
| 12 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | + 0.464 |
| 13 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | + 0.559 |
| 14 | Marino Sato | Trident | + 0.617 |
| 15 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | + 0.721 |
| 16 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | + 0.728 |
| 17 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | + 0.899 |
| 18 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | + 1.032 |
| 19 | Marcus Armstrong | ART GP | + 1.237 |
| 20 | Giuliano Alesi | HWA Racelab | + 1.423 |
| 21 | Roy Nissany | Trident | + 1.553 |
| 22 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | + 1.999 |
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