Antonio Giovinazzi had been the fastest in the first practice session of GP2 at Red Bull Ring ahead of his Prema teammate Pierre Gasly. Jordan King was third in a session interrupted by a red flag.
Alex Lynn was the first front-runner to set a flying lap. Arthur Pic was the first driver to go wide at Turn 1. René Binder got his sensations back behind a GP2 wheel as he stepped in for Nobuharu Matshita with ART Grand Prix this week-end. DAMS seemed to be quite easy during the first part of the season before Pierre Gasly went faster.
Nicholas Latifi was the first driver to go off the road at turn 8, implying the virtual safety car to go out briefly as he was stopped on track. With thirty minutes to go, Gasly was leading from Sergey Sirotkin and Antonio Giovinazzi. Jordan King managed to take over Gasly halfway through the session.
With twenty minutes to go, Gustav Malja stopped his smoking Rapax on track, provoking a red flag. After seven minutes of interruption, the session was underway, King ahead of Gasly and Artem Markelov on the timing-sheets.
A few minutes later, Nabil Jeffri and Mitch Evans both spun at the first 1, the Arden could go again, the Campos could not, the virtual safety car went in as Giovinazzi was improving. Gasly and Giovinazzi could improve the best time although the Italian went wide slightly wide at T1.
Antonio Giovinazzi ended fastest of the session with a 1:13.922, almost three tenths faster than Gasly and King. Marciello, Markvelov, Sirotkin, Rowland, Lynn, Ghiotto and Kirchhöfer completed the top 10.