Romain Grosjean has set the pace this morning in free practice at Silverstone, topping the timesheets ahead of Mike Conway and ART teammate Luca Filippi.
The Frenchman's best time of 1:27.411 was set just ahead of his pitstop for fresh tyres, and was three tenths faster than his closest rivals before the track cooled, putting an end to any possible improvement.
The session started at a frenetic pace and just got quicker: the names at the top of the screens were spinning like a top, with Alvaro Parente, Conway, Andy Soucek, Karun Chandhok, Grosjean, and Conway again putting themselves in P1 before Grosjean claimed the top spot for good.
With everyone changing tyres in the middle of the session as usual it was expected that the times would continue to tumble, but cloud cover and Fernando Alonso's oil at turn 7 put paid to any further improvement, with the latter helping Filippi, Bruno Senna and Parente into gentle spins as they pushed hard at the fast corner.
Behind the top three Giorgio Pantano, Kamui Kobayashi, Andreas Zuber, Soucek, Parente, Lucas di Grassi and Senna will be hoping to wring more from their cars in this afternoon's qualifying session.
Magny-Cours – Free Practice
1. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:27.411 15
2. Mike Conway Trident Racing 1:27.699 15
3. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:27.741 16
4. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:27.746 12
5. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:27.791 15
6. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 1:28.062 16
7. Andy Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:28.076 15
8. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 1:28.119 15
9. Lucas di Grassi Barwa Int. Campos Team 1:28.128 11
10. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:28.296 16
11. KarunChandhok iSport International 1:28.403 13
12. Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:28.468 16
13. AdrianValles BCN Competicion 1:28.477 11
14. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Int. Campos Team 1:28.627 14
15. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:28.809 13
16. Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dams 1:28.967 15
17. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:28.978 15
18. Marko Asmer Fisichella Motor Sport Int. 1:2819.109 15
19. Roldan Rodriguez Fisichella Motor Sport Int. 1:29.209 17
20 Alberto Valerio Durango 1:29.466 16
21. Diego Nunes DPR 1:29.721 16
22. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden 1:29.876 14
23. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:30.044 17
24. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:30.460 16
25 Michael Herck DPR 1:30.509 17
26. Carlos Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:31.469 16
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