Spa GP2: Vandoorne sets practice pace on home soil

The McLaren-backed Belgian ousted Alexander Rossi from the top spot just over 10 minutes into the session with a time of 1m57.499s, going two tenths quicker than the Californian.

Vandoorne was then able to shave a further 0.013s off his benchmark on his next flying lap to record a 1m57.486s, which would go unchallenged for the remainder of the session as the drivers switched their focus to longer runs thereafter.

Mitch Evans slotted into second, 0.154s behind Vandoorne, demoting Rossi to third place.

Hungary feature race winner Alex Lynn was fourth fastest, 0.347s off the pace and just eight thousandths clear of fellow Briton Oliver Rowland in his second GP2 outing of the season - although the MP Motorsport driver ground to a halt on his way back to the pits.

In the dying stages of the session, Lynn's DAMS teammate Pierre Gasly jumped from 13th to sixth, with Sergey Sirotkin demoted to seventh and Arthur Pic, who ended the session with a spin into the barriers, being pushed down to eighth.

Completing the top 10 were Jordan King and Raffaele Marciello, who came to a stop at the pit exit midway through the session but was able to resume.

Marciello's new Trident teammate Gustav Malja was less fortunate, his debut GP2 session coming to a premature halt after a spin at the final chicane.

Practice times: