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Formula 3 European Championship debutants and Carlin team-mates Jake Hughes and Lando Norris stole the thunder of the series regulars in free practice for the final round at Hockenheim.

Hughes, who won the GP3 reversed-grid race at the venue during the summer, set the overall best time of the 80 minutes in a short burst of action right at the end after the only red flag.

That lap dislodged the first-session-topping effort of Norris, who wrapped up the Formula Renault Northern European Cup at the same circuit two weeks ago.

It was the first time driving an F3 car at Hockenheim for both Hughes, who has a total of five days' experience in F3 machinery (four of them last winter), and Norris, who along with fellow Carlin driver Dan Ticktum will have to start the races from the pitlane because of their extensive F3 rookie-test programmes.

Hughes's lap was subsequently bettered at the last gasp by David Beckmann, only for the Mucke Motorsport driver to have his effort disallowed due to exceeding track limits.

"The lap wasn't mistake-free, so even if it [Beckmann's time] was allowed I'm confident I could beat it," said Hughes.

"The car feels mega. In FP1 I was very quick early on and what we learnt there we put to good use - it's looking good."

Norris had just fitted a set of new tyres when the red flag - due to the stricken Hitech GP car of George Russell - spoiled his chances of improving.

"The first half of the session I was just getting used to it," said Norris.

"I felt pretty confident, put new tyres on [in FP1], pushed a bit more and found more time.

"I'm pretty pleased with how it went, although you never know who's been running conservatively or not until qualifying."

Newly crowned champion Lance Stroll put in a final-lap effort to go second quickest in his Prema Powerteam car, the Formula 1-bound Canadian going just 0.038 seconds slower than Hughes's final best and demoting Russell to third.

Joel Eriksson (Motopark) and Maximilian Gunther (Prema) were fourth and fifth in the second session, with Norris next.

Norris's first-session performance put him 0.225s clear of Beckmann, who again leapt up the order on the final lap but in this case was allowed to keep the time, with Van Amersfoort Racing's Callum Ilott and Hughes next.

Ticktum, Carlin's other British category debutant, finished up just outside the top 10 at his first race weekend since the end of his 12-month suspension from racing.

FP1 TIMES

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps 1 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m32.404s 22 2 David Beckmann kfzteile Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 0.225s 19 3 Callum Ilott Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 0.281s 22 4 Jake Hughes Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 0.326s 19 5 Anthoine Hubert Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 0.464s 23 6 Lance Stroll Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.602s 19 7 Ralf Aron Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.627s 19 8 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.690s 19 9 Ben Barnicoat Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.734s 22 10 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 0.745s 18 11 Sergio Sette Camara Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 0.785s 18 12 George Russell Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.807s 18 13 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.869s 22 14 Alexander Sims Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.883s 19 15 Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 0.928s 21 16 Dan Ticktum Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1.124s 17 17 Nick Cassidy Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1.176s 18 18 Guanyu Zhou Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1.256s 17 19 Mikkel Jensen kfzteile Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1.421s 19 20 Niko Kari Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1.521s 16 21 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1.672s 19 22 Andy Chang ThreeBond with T-Sport Dallara/NBE 2.206s 21

FP2 TIMES

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps 1 Jake Hughes Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m32.361s 20 2 Lance Stroll Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.038s 18 3 George Russell Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.123s 13 4 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 0.162s 18 5 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.213s 19 6 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 0.283s 15 7 Nick Cassidy Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.306s 19 8 Callum Ilott Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 0.386s 16 9 Niko Kari Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 0.416s 16 10 Sergio Sette Camara Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 0.429s 14 11 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.459s 15 12 Dan Ticktum Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 0.496s 18 13 Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 0.589s 17 14 Guanyu Zhou Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 0.628s 15 15 Ralf Aron Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.630s 20 16 Alexander Sims Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.644s 15 17 David Beckmann kfzteile Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 0.665s 12 18 Mikkel Jensen kfzteile Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 0.781s 14 19 Ben Barnicoat Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 0.872s 16 20 Anthoine Hubert Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 0.908s 13 21 Andy Chang ThreeBond with T-Sport Dallara/NBE 3.234s 11



