Sims dominates rain soaked GP3 practice

Alexander Sims keeps the British flags flying after topping the second GP3 practice session in Silverstone

The Status Grand Prix driver’s best lap of 2:11.573 was nearly one second quicker than fellow Brit Lewis Williamson, in a rain socked practice at Silverstone Circuit, which saw the young drivers battle with difficult conditions throughout.

A torrential downpour during the earlier GP2 qualifying session ensured all the drivers headed out onto the track equipped with Pirelli P Zero wet weather tires, and it was MW Arden’s Mitch Evans who was first out the pits. Despite the rain having eased off, the drivers were still having to deal with tricky conditions which saw numerous spinning cars, but MW Arden’s Williamson and Sims managed to find enough grip to plant themselves at the top of the timesheet early on, together with this morning’s quickest man Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and his Marussia Manor Racing teammate Rio Haryanto.

Ten minutes in and Jenzer Motorsport’s Maxim Zimin found himself the quickest man on track, but unfortunately for the Russian he followed it with a spin at Abbey, ending his session early. Williamson then took mantle midway through the session, when conditions had cleared enough to push, but then along came Sims – the Status driver put together the perfect laps in what were still difficult conditions and went 0.930 seconds quicker than the MW Arden driver.

The final minutes of the session saw the rain begin to fall yet again, and Sims’ time remained out of reach. Williamson held on to his second place spot ahead of Daniel Morad, Valtteri Bottas, Rio Haryanto, Vittorio Ghirelli, Nico Muller, Quaife-Hobbs, Zoel Amberg and Nigel Melker.

Next up for GP3 Series is qualifying tomorrow morning at 08:45 local time.

Practice 2 times: