Formula Two news

Eng leads final practice in Barcelona

Philipp Eng led the way as the last practice session of the season took place in Spain. The Austrian set the pace with his best lap of the Circuit de Catalunya arriving halfway through the half-hour period, topping the timesheets from Ebrahim and Vautier with local favourite and Champion Andy Soucek fourth. Tom Gladdis led the way for British honours in seventh.

"I had new tyres on just to see how the car runs in the best conditions," said Eng, whose best lap of 1:38.468 was almost a full second quicker than anybody. "It was not perfect and I still need to find two or three tenths. I actually had a missed shift during my fastest lap so it could have been even quicker. The rest of the lap was good, but I was also pretty fast on old tyres. I am happy with the car and speed, and I am very confident ahead of qualifying."

20-year-old Vautier performed admirably again and the Frenchman was delighted to compare himself with other drivers using new rubber: "I think the faster guys were on new tyres so it is good that I am on a similar pace to them," he said. "It is just so close so I will have to keep working. We made a few changes from yesterday and the times just came. I am sure it will be a lot tougher during qualifying!"

F2 front runners Andy Soucek, Mikhail Aleshin and Julien Jousse set their best times relatively early in the session and the trio ended up fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

After missing the test day through illness earlier in the week, Tom Gladdis produced a stunning lap to take seventh, whilst Robert Wickens and Alex Brundle set exactly the same lap time in eighth and ninth. Brundle was not happy with the set-up during yesterday's session and the young Briton seemed to make the most of his improved car with a strong showing this morning.

Spaniard Germán Sánchez clearly enjoys the Circuit de Catalunya and the 20-year-old was in good form during practice. Having clinched the Spanish F3 title here last season, Sánchez punched in a solid top ten lap time here today.

Kazim Vasiliauskas, Miloš Pavlović, Tobias Hegewald and Mirko Bortolotti were all notable absentees from the top ten. All four drivers remain in contention for second and third in the championship, and with it qualification for an FIA Superlicence.

The session was briefly red flagged when Jousse spun at turn five while trying to better his sixth position. The Frenchman came to a halt with his car slightly in the gravel and required a tow back to the circuit. Henri Karjalainen's car stopped out on track at the same time and the Race Director was forced to stop the session.

Surprisingly Jousse had already recovered from two earlier spins - he joined after a brief off at turn four and he then took a trip across the gravel at turn 11 in the opening ten minutes. Pietro Gandolfi was another to recover from a spin, but there were no further notable incidents.

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