F2 – Austrian Grand Prix – Free Practice: Dunne dominates, Browning disqualified
Alex Dunne dominated free practice for the Austrian F2 Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, ahead of Gabriele Minì and Arvid Lindblad. The session was marked by the disqualification of Luke Browning for non-compliance with the technical regulations on fuel sampling.
Alex Dunne took the lead from the free practice sessions of the Formula 2 Austrian Grand Prix by setting the fastest time at 1:16.121 on the Red Bull Ring. The championship leader was ahead of Gabriele Minì and Arvid Lindblad in a session marked by the disqualification of Luke Browning.
The Rodin Motorsport driver found two improvements in the final moments to seize the provisional pole position. Dunne first took the lead with less than ten minutes remaining before lowering his time by another tenth to set the definitive benchmark.
Very tight times
Luke Browning set the pace at the start of the session with a time of 1:17.558 for Hitech TGR, quickly joined by Jak Crawford who moved into second position for DAMS Lucas Oil. Amaury Cordeel then took the lead with 1:17.415, ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli of Invicta Racing.
The exchanges intensified when Crawford crossed the 1:16 mark before Victor Martins responded with a time of 1:16.764. The American regained the advantage with 1:16.728, with Cordeel closing to within just three thousandths.
Gabriele Minì then put PREMA Racing in the lead as the session approached the halfway point with a time of 1:16.391, creating a gap of two tenths. Crawford tried to respond in the final moments but could only manage second place, still one tenth behind the Italian.
Dunne makes the difference
Arvid Lindblad had reduced Minì’s lead to 0.125 before Dunne entered the scene. The Irish driver first set his personal best time to take the lead, then further improved his time to secure himself in the first position.
Behind the leading trio, Victor Martins and Jak Crawford completed the top 5. Leonardo Fornaroli finished sixth ahead of Kush Maini, Richard Verschoor, Ritomo Miyata, and Amaury Cordeel.
Browning disqualified due to technical issue
The session had an unexpected epilogue with the disqualification of Luke Browning. The stewards excluded the Hitech TGR driver after his car failed to provide the minimum fuel sample of 0.8 kg required at the end of the session, violating Article 6.3.1 of the F2 technical regulations.
This disqualification resulted in the erasure of all the times set by Browning and the promotion of one place for all the drivers initially ranked behind him. A hard blow for the British driver who had nevertheless shown an interesting pace at the start of the session.
