Argenti Motorsport’s Casper Stevenson set the pace in opening practice for this weekend’s F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost triple header at Brands Hatch GP.

Stevenson set his benchmark time, a 1:28.293, in the final ten minutes of the session to demote Arden’s Alex Connor into second, just a tenth adrift around the 2.4-mile Kent circuit.

Another erstwhile pace-setter, Carlin’s Christian Mansell, rounds out the top three, a further 0.033s back, with Fortec’s Roberto Faria and current championship leader Zak O’Sullivan completing the top five.

JHR Developments team mates Abbi Pulling and James Hedley were next in sixth and seventh respectively, just ahead of Argenti’s Nico Pino in eighth.

Matias Zagazeta made it three Carlin machines in the top ten with ninth, the gap to Roman Bilinski (Arden) behind just 0.026s.

Rookie Cup standings leader Rafael Villagomez was eleventh, Frederick Lubin twelfth and Luke Browning – currently the driver closest to O’Sullivan in the standings – was thirteenth.

The field is completed by Reema Juffali (Argenti) and Nat Hodgkiss (JHR), with the entire field covered by just over 1.6-seconds after a drama-free 45 minute session.

Free Practice 2 continues the build-up to the weekend at 14:40 (BST).

Classification – Free Practice 1