Mini fastest, Trident focuses on long runs on second morning of F3 test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Hitech GP’s Gabriele Mini was fastest on the second morning of FIA Formula 3 testing at Barcelona, as day one’s pacesetting team Trident switched strategy to long runs.

Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti set the early benchmark on Friday morning, with a 1m28.347s lap putting him 0.106 seconds ahead of Hitech’s Sebastian Montoya.

There were 22 drivers that headed out to set flying laps in the opening 10 minutes, with PHM Racing by Charouz and Trident opting to keep their drivers in the pits.

Marti lowered the pace to 1m28.139s in the next 10 minutes before Jenzer Motorsport’s Taylor Barnard, who had gone second fastest, brought out red flags by getting into trouble in the final sector.

The top 18 were covered by a second on pace at this point, and Trident was still yet to send out its trio of cars.

Drivers continued to improve as the session approached the half-hour mark, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Caio Collet being the first into the 1m26s. He was then bettered by ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy, and following that Marti returned to first place with a 1m26.704s lap.

That kept him in first place for 20 minutes, before a flurry of improvements came in late in the first hour. Barnard went fastest by setting a 1m26.382s, Saucy kept himself insecond and Paul Aron (Prema) and Christian Mansell (Campos) got close to Saucy’s pace.

Mini set what would be the fastest lap of the three-hour session after one hour and minutes had passed, posting a 1m26.319s. Marti also improved to go fifth fastest, with the majority of the drivers sat in the pits.

Trident’s trio finally headed out in the session’s second half, and all three drivers embarked on long runs. Their pace was several seconds off the qualifying simulations that the likes of Mini had done, but they impressively stayed on track without pitting for 36 minutes.

After a 15-minute break they headed back out, again focusing on longer runs rather than outright pace, and therefore stayed at the bottom of the timesheet.

The lack of improved pace from any drivers who set laps in the session’s second half meant Mini ended up on top by 0.063s over Barnard, with Saucy 0.203s behind and with the top 20 covered by 0.931s.

Morning session results