By alley - Sep 26, 2014, 6:00 AM ET

FR3.5: Stockinger sets Ricard practice pace

Lotus driver Marlon Stockinger set the pace in both Formula Renault 3.5 free practice sessions at Paul Ricard on Friday.

After leading teammate Matthieu Vaxiviere to a one-two in the morning session, Stockinger then doubled up in the afternoon, taking the top spot as one of the last cars to pass the checkered flag. That late effort demoted Matias Laine from a short-lived spell at the front of the field, after he had deposed previous pacesetters Jazeman Jaafar and Oliver Rowland.

Rowland was one of the first drivers to hit the ground running when teams switched their attention to qualifying work in the final 10 minutes of the afternoon, but that also meant that he had used up the best of his tyres by the time his rivals were building up to their hot laps.

Championship rivals Roberto Merhi and Carlos Sainz Jr. finished the day eighth and 12th, respectively, but it was the in-form Merhi who featured closer to the front of the order during the majority of afternoon running.

Merhi, who was a tenth of a second slower than Sainz in the morning, ran as high as second in the closing stages before being bumped down the order by the usual late improvements throughout the field.

Sainz had a low-key second session and rarely featured in the top 10; however his DAMS teammate Norman Nato – a winner last time out in Hungary – ended the day fifth fastest.

Practice 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Marlon Stockinger	Lotus	1m 48.905s	-	17
2	Matthieu Vaxiviere	Lotus	1m 49.232s	0.327s	18
3	Oliver Rowland	Fortec Motorsports	1m 49.347s	0.442s	17
4	Marco Sorensen	Tech 1 Racing	1m 49.653s	0.748s	17
5	William Buller	Arden Motorsport	1m 49.658s	0.753s	18
6	Pierre Gasly	Arden Motorsport	1m 49.666s	0.761s	18
7	Norman Nato	DAMS	1m 49.695s	0.790s	18
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	DAMS	1m 49.738s	0.833s	19
9	Will Stevens	Strakka Racing	1m 49.752s	0.847s	19
10	Sergey Sirotkin	Fortec Motorsports	1m 49.790s	0.885s	16
11	Roberto Merhi	Zeta Corse	1m 49.886s	0.981s	19
12	Jazeman Jaafar	ISR	1m 49.937s	1.032s	17
13	Matias Laine	Strakka Racing	1m 49.980s	1.075s	19
14	Luca Ghiotto	International Draco Racing	1m 50.202s	1.297s	20
15	Meindert van Buuren	Pons Racing	1m 50.316s	1.411s	18
16	Esteban Ocon	Comtec Racing	1m 50.432s	1.527s	17
17	Pietro Fantin	International Draco Racing	1m 50.454s	1.549s	14
18	Nicholas Latifi	Tech 1 Racing	1m 50.869s	1.964s	19
19	Oscar Tunjo	Pons Racing	1m 50.917s	2.012s	15
20	Beitske Visser	AVF	1m 50.936s	2.031s	18
21	Zoel Amberg	AVF	1m 51.752s	2.847s	17
22	Cameron Twynham	Comtec Racing	1m 52.004s	3.099s	9

Practice 2

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Marlon Stockinger	Lotus	1m 48.523s	-	18
2	Matias Laine	Strakka Racing	1m 48.619s	0.096s	17
3	Jazeman Jaafar	ISR	1m 48.687s	0.164s	17
4	Oliver Rowland	Fortec Motorsports	1m 48.742s	0.219s	19
5	Norman Nato	DAMS	1m 48.764s	0.241s	19
6	Matthieu Vaxiviere	Lotus	1m 48.790s	0.267s	16
7	Luca Ghiotto	International Draco Racing	1m 48.812s	0.289s	22
8	Roberto Merhi	Zeta Corse	1m 48.876s	0.353s	18
9	Oscar Tunjo	Pons Racing	1m 49.025s	0.502s	19
10	Sergey Sirotkin	Fortec Motorsports	1m 49.061s	0.538s	18
11	William Buller	Arden Motorsport	1m 49.102s	0.579s	18
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.	DAMS	1m 49.103s	0.580s	20
13	Marco Sorensen	Tech 1 Racing	1m 49.105s	0.582s	18
14	Will Stevens	Strakka Racing	1m 49.107s	0.584s	16
15	Zoel Amberg	AVF	1m 49.111s	0.588s	17
16	Pierre Gasly	Arden Motorsport	1m 49.207s	0.684s	17
17	Nicholas Latifi	Tech 1 Racing	1m 49.372s	0.849s	17
18	Esteban Ocon	Comtec Racing	1m 49.385s	0.862s	19
19	Meindert van Buuren	Pons Racing	1m 50.027s	1.504s	19
20	Beitske Visser	AVF	1m 50.032s	1.509s	19
21	Cameron Twynham	Comtec Racing	1m 51.001s	2.478s	10
22	Pietro Fantin	International Draco Racing	-	-	0