Having taken the championship lead after his third win of the season in the US, Klaas van Snelheid continued his run of good form after being fastest in Austria practice. However barely any running took place due to a total six red flags due to crashes and mechanical failures. After a very wet Thursday, the rain continued, albeit slight for the first on-track FV action in around a month. The two Lopez cars and returnee Lewis Ellington were the first to set a lap time, but before anyone else could finish a complete lap Finn Schnyder lost the car at the exit of the penultimate corner, where there was a puddle next to the kerb. He was sent into the inside wall, destroying the rear end of the car and bringing out the first red flag.
When the car was removed many drivers went out to get some running done. A more usual order was starting to form as Allar Kangur was fastest from Enrique Ruiz, but both FIRST struggled with getting traction off slow corners, with both drivers towards the bottom of the top ten. Another team to struggle were Holmqvist, who had severe understeer with their car. Sebastian Bergkvist and Felix Beyer spent their afternoon towards the bottom of the timesheets, just ahead of Schnyder and Thierry Xylander who didn't do another lap after his first timed run due to not feeling well. The two Holmqvists eventually grinded to a half after turn 1 and turn 4 simultaneously, capping off a miserable day. The next time the session was restarted, not many cars went out, but van Snelheid was one of them and smashed the times, beating Kangur by a full 1 and a half seconds. More drivers decided to venture out after that and many improved, including Adrien Simon who went into second and Tumo Kinnumen who went into fourth. James Vasquez impressed with sixth. Action was stopped again when Kangur overcorrected into turn 6, going into the gravel and hitting the barrier. By the time the mess was cleaned up the rain was heavier and not many were able to improve. There were three more red flags however. Nikolai Milkovich had a suspension failure on the main straight, though it was nothing dramatic and he stopped on the runoff on turn 1. Ellington locked up at turn 2 and couldn't turn the car, going into the barrier at low speeds, though it was enough to render his practice over. Finally Jean Mattson had a horrible crash, going over the same puddle as Schnyder but going towards the outside barrier, making a nasty impact, destroying the tyre wall and ending practice early. Championship contenders Ruiz and Powers were 3rd and 5th as they look to close up to van Snelheid, while Kangur ended up 7th after his accident. Johan Halvonsen impressed with 9th, sandwiched by the FIRST drivers. 13th to 18th, bar Hunter Ryan in 15th, was covered by new teams, with Andromeda the first two and Lucas the last two, Diego Campos in the middle. Dmytro Kovalenko had a surprisingly good session, finishing 21st, while Juan Mario Lopez and Gabriele Garcia never looked comfortable in 23rd and 24th. Puccio Giodano had engine problems which left him in the garage after two runs, placing 25th. See the full practice classification below:
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