Jehan Daruvala clocks second-fastest time in practice

Silverstone, 31 July 2020: Ace Indian racer Jehan Daruvala came second, only less than half a second off the pace than teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, who topped Free Practice for the third time in four rounds, as Carlin claimed a 1-2 finish at their home event. The Mumbai-born Daruvala is in second place, 0.4s further back, but had enough pace to show off, and is looking forward to a good weekend to add to his 10 points from the first two rounds.

The field were glad to see some sunshine after a rather wet start to the 2020 season, and wasted no time in getting out on track, with all 22 of the grid setting a flying lap at the first opportunity.

Mick Schumacher was the first around the British circuit, stretching his legs and taking a scenic tour of Silverstone, as he tried to warm up his boots.

There was an early yellow flag as Giuliano Alesi spun off track and came to a halt, on his second lap of the circuit. When things got back underway, we got the familiar site of Yuki Tsunoda at the top of the Free Practice leaderboard.

His teammate Jehan Daruvala nestled in behind him, while UNI-Virtuosi looked in solid form once more, taking third and fourth in the early stages.

Tsunoda pushed the limits slightly too hard, spinning at Copse and bringing out a brief yellow flag. The Red Bull junior would thankfully get going again.

Felipe Drugovich managed to get a lap in ahead of the spin, jumping up to third. The MP Motorsport racer looks much more confident on the hard tyres, which brought him great success in the opening two rounds in Austria.

Tsunoda’s time of 1:40.563 could not be bettered in the second half of the session, as the field focused on gathering data and getting laps under their belts.

Callum Ilott and Guanyu Zhou remained fourth and fifth, ahead of Dan Ticktum, Louis Deletraz and Nikita Mazepin. Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Armstrong completed the top ten.

Tsunoda will look to turn his early form into pole position when Qualifying takes place at 5pm (local time) 9.30 pm IST.