Maldonado leads the way in free practice

Pastor Maldonado has continued where he left off in Valencia by putting himself on top of the timesheets in this morning's free practice session in Silverstone, edging ahead of rivals Giedo van der Garde and Jerome d'Ambrosio.

Pastor Maldonado (VEN, Rapax). Credit: Jakob Ebrey/GP2 Media

The Venezuelan set a best time of 1:40.393 at the 12 minute mark, pushing ahead of the Dutchman's then best lap by two tenths with a time that would not be matched for the remainder of the session, with third placed d'Ambrosio the closest challenger with just a few minutes remaining before the chequered flag.

The session opened in warm but breezy conditions, with Giacomo Ricci, Luiz Razia and Jules Bianchi setting the early pace: unfortunately for the Brazilian he appeared to snap left at the chicane and rolled to a halt, with his then quickest lap soon falling back to 12th as the rest of the grid got up to speed.

Van der Garde was the first man to challenge Razia's time, but only managed to hold on to the top spot for about a minute before Maldonado made the position his own: with temperatures increasing for the second half of the session only d'Ambrosio managed to improve his time among the top runners to put himself third, ahead of Sergio Perez, Christian Vietoris, Dani Clos, Davide Valsecchi and Jules Bianchi.

With the top twelve drivers covered by just one second, this afternoon's qualifying session looks set to be another classic at the fabled British circuit.

Silverstone - Practice Session

Pos Driver                Team                     Time     Laps

1.  Pastor Maldonado      Rapax                    1:40.393  15
2.  Giedo van der Garde   Barwa Addax Team         1:40.588  13
3.  Jerome d'Ambrosio     Dams                     1:40.712  14
4.  Sergio Perez          Barwa Addax Team         1:40.749  14
5.  Christian Vietoris    Racing Engineering       1:40.962  14
6.  Dani Clos             Racing Engineering       1:41.010  11
7.  Davide Valsecchi      iSport International     1:14.028  14
8.  Jules Bianchi         ART Grand Prix           1:41.140  15
9.  Oliver Turvey         iSport International     1:41.141  15
10. Michael Herck         DPR                      1:41.259  13
11. Sam Bird              ART Grand Prix           1:41.390  14
12. Luiz Razia            Rapax                    1:41.434   4
13. Luca Filippi          Super Nova Racing        1:41.712  14
14. Alberto Valerio       Scuderia Coloni          1:41.826  14
15. Marcus Ericsson       Super Nova Racing        1:42.048  15
16. Fabio Leimer          Ocean Racing Technology  1:42.050   8
17. Rodolfo Gonzalez      Arden International      1:42.095  14
18. Adrian Zaugg          Trident Racing           1:42.233  15
19. Giacomo Ricci         DPR                      1:42.238  15
20. Max Chilton           Ocean Racing Technology  1:42.858  14
21. Ho-Pin Tung           Dams                     1:42.956  13
22. Johnny Cecotto        Trident Racing           1:43.099  14
23. Vladimir Arabadzhiev  Scuderia Coloni          1:43.326  16
24. Charles Pic           Arden International      1:53.076   3

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