Luca Ghiotto carried his Austrian form into Round 7 to achieve his highest session placing since Barcelona, lapping quickest in Formula 2 Free Practice, at Silverstone.
The Italian followed up his pair of podium finishes in Spielberg with P1, ahead of DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi and teammate Guanyu Zhou.
Sauber Junior Team by Charouz duo Juan Manuel Correa and Callum Ilott set the early pace, immediately going under 1m 43s. The session was then briefly yellow flagged as Sean Gelael and Louis Delétraz made contact around Turn 6, which forced the PREMA man to retire from Free Practice.
British duo Jack Aitken and Jordan King fleetingly led proceedings, until Nyck De Vries and Sérgio Sette Câmara took turns at the top of the table, before ducking into the pits for a freshen up.
Ghiotto made the most of an emptying circuit to claim P1 ahead of De Vries and Sette Câmara, with a time of 1:39.166. Jack Aitken and Latifi both made attempts on his time, but neither could match him and settled for second and third.
With the session coming to a close, the Italian’s teammate Zhou demonstrated the pace of the UNI-Virtuosi machine this weekend and raced round for third place, nestling behind Ghiotto and Latifi. They were followed by Aitken, Sette Câmara and De Vries. Meanwhile, Arjun Maini made a return to the top seven in just his second round this season, beating Delétraz, Nobuharu Matsushita and King.
Ghiotto will look to continue his resurgence when the cars hit the track for qualifying at 3.55pm local time.
2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship – Round 7 Free Practice classification
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Laptime | Laps |
| 1 | Luca Ghiotto | UNI-Virtuosi Racing | 01:39.2 | 18 |
| 2 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 01:39.3 | 20 |
| 3 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi Racing | 01:39.3 | 18 |
| 4 | Jack Aitken | Campos Racing | 01:39.6 | 17 |
| 5 | Sergio Sette Camara | DAMS | 01:39.6 | 20 |
| 6 | Nyck De Vries | ART Grand Prix | 01:39.7 | 22 |
| 7 | Arjun Maini | Campos Racing | 01:39.9 | 20 |
| 8 | Louis Deletraz | Carlin | 01:40.0 | 21 |
| 9 | Nobuharu Matsushita | Carlin | 01:40.0 | 22 |
| 10 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 01:40.1 | 21 |
| 11 | Mick Schumacher | PREMA Racing | 01:40.1 | 17 |
| 12 | Nikita Mazepin | ART Grand Prix | 01:40.2 | 21 |
| 13 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 01:40.5 | 19 |
| 14 | Callum Ilott | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 01:40.7 | 22 |
| 15 | Dorian Boccolacci | Trident | 01:40.8 | 17 |
| 16 | Anthoine Hubert | BWT Arden | 01:40.8 | 21 |
| 17 | Juan Manuel Correa | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 01:40.9 | 21 |
| 18 | Tatiana Calderon | BWT Arden | 01:41.8 | 20 |
| 19 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | MP Motorsport | 01:42.8 | 19 |
| 20 | Sean Gelael | PREMA Racing | 02:00.6 | 3 |
