Joel went fifth quickest in free practice for the FIA F3 European Championship weekend at Norisring, as times proved as close as expected around the short and fast street track.
The first part of practice was hit by a brief spell of rain, which left the track momentarily wet for about 15 minutes before the sun arrived again and the circuit quickly dried.
All the quickest times came in the second half of the session, with Joel eventually posting a 48.727s best which left him 0.249s down on surprise pace-setter Pedro Piquet.
The short and relatively uncomplicated layout of the Norisring lap meant lap times were very close, with the full 18-car field covered by eight tenths of a second.
Next session: Qualifying 1, 17.50 local time (GMT+02:00).
Comment, Joel:
“I think it’s an OK start. We didn’t do a lot of running in the first part of the session, especially after the rain arrived, but I got some good laps in during the final ten minutes and the car feels alright. Still some room for improvement here and there, as always, but generally I think we have a good base going into qualifying. The track will evolve and pick up more grip as the weekend goes on, so we need to make sure we adapt to that.”
RESULTS – Free Practice