Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy was fastest in the first session of pre-season testing for the FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Action began with two-and-a-half hours on track at Bahrain on Tuesday morning, but in the first half of that session 26 of the 30 drivers only completed an outlap and then stayed in the pits.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith set a flying lap after the first hour and continued to navigate around the track for some time before the Hitech GP trio of Luke Browning, Gabriele Mini and Sebastian Montoya eventually joined him as the session hit its halfway mark.
But none of those three even set a flying lap before returning to the pits, lapping over half a minute slower than Smith on their timed effort, and it was not until the final 45 minutes that drivers headed out again with the intention to set laptimes.
With half an hour remaining on the clock it was Jenzer Motorsport’s Alex Garcia who sat in first place with a 1m50.253s lap, putting him 0.148 seconds ahead of team-mate Taylor Barnard and with Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti 0.238s behind in third.
Two other drivers were within a second of the pace, and 10 drivers had now set flying laps while the 20 others had still not left the pits. Barnard went fastest two minutes later, a 1m49.199s effort putting him 0.3s clear of Marti.
As the session reached its final 20 minutes, all but the PHM Racing by Charouz, MP Motorsport and VAR drivers headed out but there was no change at the top of the times.
Barnard was eventually usurped in the final minutes by Saucy, who set a 1m49.155s to go fastest by 0.044s.
Prema’s Zak O’Sullivan also jumped up the order late on to third, with MP Motorsport’s Jonny Edgar going fourth and Marti being shuffled down to fifth.
Completing the most laps was Browning, who was driving an F3 car for the first time as a prize for winning the 2022 GB3 title.
At the very bottom of the timesheet, VAR’s Rafael Villagomez and PHM’s Sophia Floersch both failed to set a single representative laptime during the session.
Morning session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gaps | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gregoire Saucy | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.155s | 9 | |
| 2 | Taylor Barnard | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m49.199s | +0.044s | 14 |
| 3 | Zak O’Sullivan | Prema | 1m49.448s | +0.293s | 10 |
| 4 | Jonny Edgar | MP Motorsport | 1m49.456s | +0.301s | 9 |
| 5 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m49.500s | +0.345s | 16 |
| 6 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Trident | 1m49.566s | +0.411s | 11 |
| 7 | Caio Collet | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m49.619s | +0.464s | 7 |
| 8 | Paul Aron | Prema | 1m49.687s | +0.532s | 12 |
| 9 | Nikita Bedrin | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m49.712s | +0.557s | 12 |
| 10 | Dino Beganovic | Prema | 1m49.797s | +0.642s | 13 |
| 11 | Kaylen Frederick | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.819s | +0.664s | 10 |
| 12 | Hunter Yeany | Carlin | 1m49.899s | +0.744s | 10 |
| 13 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | 1m49.901s | +0.746s | 9 |
| 14 | Hugh Barter | Campos Racing | 1m50.098s | +0.943s | 16 |
| 15 | Lenoardo Fornaroli | Trident | 1m50.197s | +1.042s | 11 |
| 16 | Alex Garcia | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m50.253s | +1.098s | 13 |
| 17 | Oliver Goethe | Trident | 1m50.279s | +1.124s | 11 |
| 18 | Nikola Tsolov | ART Grand Prix | 1m50.670s | +1.515s | 10 |
| 19 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | 1m50.810s | +1.655s | 9 |
| 20 | Mari Boya | MP Motorsport | 1m50.871s | +1.716s | 10 |
| 21 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 1m50.881s | +1.726s | 29 |
| 22 | Christian Mansell | Campos Racing | 1m51.078s | +1.923s | 15 |
| 23 | Tommy Smith | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m51.332s | +2.177s | 26 |
| 24 | Gabriele Mini | Hitech GP | 1m51.545s | +2.390s | 28 |
| 25 | Sebastian Montoya | Hitech GP | 1m51.704s | +2.549s | 25 |
| 26 | Piotr Wisnicki | PHM Racing by Charouz | 1m52.052s | +2.897s | 10 |
| 27 | Ollie Gray | Carlin | 1m52.196s | +3.041s | 9 |
| 28 | Roberto Faria | PHM Racing by Charouz | 1m52.399s | +3.244s | 7 |
| 29 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 2m01.365s | +12.210s | 5 |
| 30 | Sophia Floersch | PHM Racing by Charouz | no time | 3 |