Lynn leads the way in the GP3 practice

The Briton finished the practice on top, way ahead from his rivals. Bernstorff was second and Yelloly was third.

The GP3 Series made its debut at Red Bull Ring this afternoon. Although it was a new addition to the calendar, several drivers already raced in other formulas at the famous Austrian track, which was a bit tricky to drive due to cold weather conditions and the rain that fell during the Formula 1 and GP2 sessions.

The practice had to be red-flagged with 26 minutes remaining, when De Beer made contact with the wall in the main straight after running wide on the kerb of the last corner. This made the drivers finish their first stints earlier than expected, although many of them were able to complete eight laps before the red flag came out.

As usual, the times were close and the top 12 drivers were covered by one second. The bigger improvements came in the closing stages of the session, when the grip were improving and the track conditions were better than in the beginning of the practice.

Lynn was the quickest and dominated almost the entire session. The current championship leader set a time of 1:20.538 that was half a second faster than his closest rivals. The Briton was the only driver that could break the 1:20 barrier and he is already one of the favourites for the pole position tomorrow morning.

In second place finished his teammate at Carlin, Bernstorff. The fellow countryman was 0.5s off the pace and set consistent lap times, so he could make a good impression in qualifying and the race tomorrow.

Very close to Bernstorff finished another Briton, Yelloly. The Status GP driver was only 0.007s slower than his countryman and with consistency he should be able to fight for the pole position and get a good result in the race.

The top 5 was completed by two surprising drivers. The Uruguayan Urrutia finished fourth, 0.749s off the pace, but he started the weekend way better than he did at Barcelona, where he couldn’t get into the top 10 in any of the races. Agostini, who joined Hilmer in this round, was fifth.

Results:

Pos.	Car	Driver		Team	Nation	Laps	Time	Gap
1	10	Alex Lynn	R	Carlin	GBR	22	1:20,538
2	11	Emil Bernstorff	R	Carlin	GBR	22	1:21,125	+ 0,587
3	26	Nick Yelloly		Status Grand Prix	GBR	21	1:21,132	+ 0,594
4	9	Santiago Urrutia	R	Koiranen GP	URG	18	1:21,287	+ 0,749
5	19	Riccardo Agostini	R	Hilmer Motorsport	ITA	20	1:21,351	+ 0,813
6	18	Nelson Mason	R	Hilmer Motorsport	CAN	23	1:21,371	+ 0,833
7	14	Patrick Kujala		Marussia Manor Racing	FIN	22	1:21,39	+ 0,852
8	4	Robert Visoiu		Arden International	ROM	21	1:21,411	+ 0,873
9	28	Alfonso Celis Jr.	R	Status Grand Prix	MEX	22	1:21,46	+ 0,922
10	3	Dino Zamparelli		ART Grand Prix	GBR	20	1:21,473	+ 0,935
11	21	Mathéo Tuscher	R	Jenzer Motorsport	CHE	19	1:21,481	+ 0,943
12	16	Dean Stoneman		Marussia Manor Racing	GBR	22	1:21,497	+ 0,959
13	2	Marvin Kirchhöfer	R	ART Grand Prix	GER	20	1:21,548	+ 1,01
14	5	Patric Neiderhauser		Arden International	CHE	22	1:21,658	+ 1,12
15	6	Jan Mardenborough		Arden International	GBR	21	1:21,905	+ 1,367
16	27	Richie stanaway		Status Grand Prix	NZL	19	1:21,952	+ 1,414
17	1	Alex Fontana		ART Grand Prix	CHE	19	1:21,953	+ 1,415
18	12	Luis Sá Silva		Carlin	ANG	22	1:22,026	+ 1,488
19	20	Pal Varhaug		Jenzer Motorsport	NOR	20	1:22,269	+ 1,731
20	22	Adderly Fong		Jenzer Motorsport	CHI	22	1:22,295	+ 1,757
21	8	Jimmy Eriksson		Koiranen GP	SWE	18	1:23,021	+ 2,483
22	17	Nikolay Martsenko	R	Hilmer Motorsport	RUS	20	1:23,403	+ 2,865
23	15	Ryan Cullen		Marussia Manor Racing	GBR	22	1:23,656	+ 3,118
24	24	Roman de Beer	R	Trident	RSA	7	1:23,902	+ 3,364
25	23	Victor Carbone	R	Trident	BRA	18	1:24,462	+ 3,924
26	7	Carmen Jordà		Koiranen GP	SPA	20	1:24,687	+ 4,149