Klaas van Snelheid led the way for Downton in free practice today, while the second and third spots were filled by Ruiz and Simon respectively. However the session also saw plenty of drama, with five drivers failing to set a time here at the punishing street circuit. Klaas looked comfortably in front all session, his Downton looking seriously set up in the final sector including topping the speed trap. The Mathershaws in second and third were looking good in their qualifying sims, although not entirely stable in race runs, leaving some at the team scratching their heads. Further back, it was Lucas and Phoenix who impressed and held true to their form last race in Japan, while Zetticci looked uncomfortable all session, losing valuable time as his car was repaired following a spin early on; the Italian rookie touching the grass out of the penultimate corner and pitching his car across the race track, damaging his front wing in the process. The next impressive performance came from Hoskins. Seemingly finding a groove here, he put in a laptime late on that was good enough for P10 on the timing sheets. Ocelot on the other hand had a torrid time of it, their cars looking nervous around the bumpy streets of Adelaide, and could only manage P16 and P17. Lopez and Westwood also struggled, both teams battling just to get a car inside the top 20, and neither looking to have made any real progress from last race. Surely the story of the session though, and a reminder of the brutality of this circuit, was the fact that a whopping five drivers failed to complete a single timed lap of the circuit. Klien seemed to suffer a hydraulic leak that the team were unable to rectify by the end of the session, while Vasquez was condemned to the pits for most of the session after stopping on his first out lap due to an electrical fault. The remaining trio of Domenicalli, Halvosen, and Zientek however had a dramatic coming together after the red flag caused by Vasquez. Domenicalli was on a hotlap, coming up on the unsuspecting Zientek who had misjudged the warning given by his race engineer, leading to a coming together just out of the right hander on the Brabham straight, causing an almighty crash. Halvosen, also on a flying lap, was coming round the bend shortly after and had no way of knowing what carnage lay ahead. Slamming on the brakes, he avoided the stricken cars in front but speared across the track into the wall. With three cars stationary at the fastest part of the track and debris everywhere, the session was immediately red flagged. All three drivers were seen at the medical centre, but all were cleared with nothing more than minor bumps or bruises. With drama so early on in the weekend then, the dangerous and close quarters nature of the circuit has already reared its head to an unsuspecting few, with much of the grid apprehensive about qualifying tomorrow following such a high speed shunt. We look forward to bringing you all the action, we hope you'll join us! In the meantime, see full results below.
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