Fabrizio Crestani and Lazarus started the Donington weekend in the best possible way. The Italian driver posted the fastest time in the first Free Practice, being the only one to break the 1’18 mark with 1’17”841. The team managed by Tancredi Pagiaro crowned a very good performance with a third place by Fabio Onidi, less than 3 tenths adrift from his team mate. In between them was Kevin Ceccon, at his first experience in Donington but already at ease with the Ombra Racing car.

Luca Filippi was fourth quickest, with a 1’18”192 that allowed him to stay ahead of his team mate Jon Lancaster: the brit lost nearly half of the session due to a radiator leak that was promptly fixed by SuperNova, but despite this he was very quick and took 5th place ahead of Samuele Buttarelli. The TP Formula driver seem to have kept momentum from his staggering Race 2 win in Brno, and finished the session ahead of Bruno Mendez and Adam Carroll: debuting on the Auto GP car, the brit of Campos Racing opted for a cautious approach, focusing on getting acquainted with the car on a track that was still a bit dirt and slippery.

Rio Haryanto and Giovanni Venturini closed the top ten, followed by Giuseppe Cipriani who keeps boasting and impressive improvement. The other Auto GP newcomer, Daniel de Jong, posted the 12th time, focusing on learning the Lola-Zytek more than anything else. Closing the sheet were Pasquale di Sabatino, Adrian Campos Jr. and Francesco Dracone. Also the Spanish driver, returning after his Monza crash, used the session to get the right feeling with the car back. It’s worth to notice that Sergei Afanasiev was forced to miss this session and will miss the whole Friday. The Russian driver is facing delays in getting his visa and will try to get to track in time for Saturday. Free Practice 1

 1 Fabrizio Crestani   Lazarus    1'17"841 2   Kevin Ceccon   Ombra    1'18"083 3   Fabio Onidi    Lazarus    1'18"125 4   Luca Filippi     SuperNova    1'18"192 5   Jon Lancaster    SuperNova    1'18"485 6   Samuele Buttarelli    TP Formula  1'18"504 7   Bruno Mendez    Campos Racing 1'18"540 8   Adam Carroll    Campos Racing 1'18"567 9   Rio Haryanto    Dams    1'18"901 10   Giovanni Venturini    Durango    1'19"043 11   Giuseppe Cipriani    Durango    1'19"335 12   Daniel De Jong    MP Motorsport   1'19"600 13   Pasquale Di Sabatino   TP Formula  1'19"64514   Adrian Campos   Campos Racing    1'19"778 15   Francesco Dracone   Ombra    1'24"005