Jake Hughes (Koiranen GP) posted the quickest time in collective testing at the Circuit Spa-Francorchamps. This Friday, the Englishman clocked his best lap in 2:17.274 to lead from Switzerland’s Kevin Jörg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Japan’s Ukyo Sasahara (ART Junior Team). Dennis Olsen (Manor MP Motorsport) set the pace in the morning at the end of a session that saw the coming of rain.

Olsen before the rain

Dennis Olsen, Matevos Isaakyan (JD Motorsport) and Jack Aitken (Koiranen GP) all spent time at the top of the time sheet before it began to rain. The session was halted for a brief period to remove the car of Darius Oskoui (ART Junior Team), which stopped on the circuit. At the end of the session, Dennis Olsen led the way with a best time of 2:19.183 ahead of Jack Aitken and Matevos Isaakyan. Jake Hughes and Simon Gachet (Tech 1 Racing) completed the top five. Eighth on the charts, Thiago Vivacqua (JD Motorsport) was the highest placed rookie.

Hughes by just 3/100ths

Championship leader, Louis Delétraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing) dominated early in the session, before being surpassed by Jake Hughes just before the mid-way point of the session. With eight minutes remaining, Kevin Jörg and Ukyo Sasahara kicked-off the final sprint. This resulted in a duel between the two drivers with the edge going to the Englishman with a best time of 2:17.274. Ukyo Sasahara, Louis Delétraz and Jack Aitken followed. Belgium’s Max Defourny (ART Junior Team), was the highest placed rookie in ninth position.

Quotes

Jake Hughes : “It was a good day. The car worked well and I am looking forward to tomorrow. It was difficult to gain useful information in the first session when it began to rain, so we saved the two sets of tyres for the afternoon. I don’t like fixing a specific goal. The objective is to win every weekend, so we will do our best in hoping to score a lot of points.”

Kevin Jörg : “After a few minutes, the rain compromised the first session and our track time. It went better in the afternoon. I had good pace and set a good time on new tyres. I am happy with this performance and I hope to be faster than Louis this time. I had some good results at Spa last year, and I want to do better this weekend.”

Ukyo Sasahara : “We were not able to make the most of the first session due to rain. We didn’t really care about our position. Right from the start of the second session, the pace was good and I improved lap after lap. I had some traffic in the final sector on my best lap with new tyres, but it is still a good result. We’ll closely study the data to get a spot on the front row tomorrow !”

Collective test 1

Collective test 2

HD picture

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