Piastri’s best time of 1:07.593 was just under a tenth slower than the fastest time of the day and almost half a second quicker than last year’s pole lap. The talented Aussie improving by over 7 tenths of a second compared to his morning’s best effort.
TRS Arden got testing off to an excellent start with Ayrton Simmons setting the pace in the opening session. A 1:08.086 lap putting him clear of the field. Simmons improved in the afternoon, breaking the 1m 8s barrier with a personal best of 1m 7.949s to see him end the day eighth overall.
The Leicestershire circuit has happy memories for Alex Quinn as the scene of his maiden British F4 pole and victory last season. Having been twelfth fastest in the morning, the Cornish racer improved by over a second to finish up fifth on the timesheets courtesy of a 1:07.753 lap.
Despite having never driven around the circuit before, Yves Baltas ended the first session in the top 10 and improved his lap time in the afternoon which saw him go 14th quickest overall with a time of 1:08.560.
TRS Arden’s quartet of talented teenagers are back on track at 10:30 for qualifying on Saturday 15 April, followed by two races at 14:40 and 17:35 respectively. The weekend finale takes place at 1220 on Sunday when the lights go out for race three which will be televised live on ITV4.
Oscar Piastri: “In free practice one the car setup wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, so we went into the afternoon knowing there was quite a lot of performance to come. The car felt so much better in the second session and I put a pretty good lap together. We made a big improvement with the car and it’s now pretty much spot on setup wise. It’s now just up to me to put all the sectors together to perform well in qualifying.
Alex Quinn: “We didn’t have an ideal morning which resulted in less track time. The afternoon session went a lot better. I feel like we need to make one little change to the balance of the car and we can be right at the front. It’s so close at the top, but we can be up there throughout the weekend. There’s time to be found out there and I missed a gear on my quickest lap today so I definitely know there’s more to come.”
Ayrton Simmons: “We knew we were reasonably quick after our performance in the morning, so we experimented a little with the car setup in the afternoon and we gained some valuable information which can help us going forward. We were quick from the outset and that has given us a solid foundation to build upon. The win at Brands Hatch was brilliant for my confidence. It was a weight off my shoulders. Being out front and leading the race until the chequered flag came so naturally and I hope I can do it again this weekend.”
Yves Baltas: “This was my first day at Donington so it’s all very new and with only two relatively short sessions everything was about optimising the learning time on track. The first session was very much a case of getting a feel for the circuit. The second session was about pushing the car more. I struggled to get many clear laps due to traffic. I’m not sure we went in quite the right direction with setup. The car was oversteering a little in the corners, but that’s nothing we cannot fix ahead of qualifying.”