Bilinski fastest in FREC, Pradel tops F4 times in Red Bull Ring test

Photo: Niels Broekema / DPPA

Teams from FIA Formula 3, Formula Regional Europe, GB3 and Italian Formula 4 tested at the Red Bull Ring this week.

Since private testing of FIA F3 cars is not allowed, Campos Racing and Jenzer Motorsport ran old GP3 cars in the two-day test. Matias Zagazeta topped all but one of the eight sessions for Jenzer, and was the test’s fastest driver by 0.304 seconds.

Arden VRD was the only GB3 team present, and Noah Ping was fastest in each of Tuesday’s four sessions. His 1m27.227s benchmark was beaten by team-mate Nikita Johnson on Wednesday by 0.186s in the penultimate session. Johnson was fastest in the day’s first session by just 0.001s over Ping.

Trident’s Roman Bilinski and Race Performance Motorsport’s Noah Stromsted were the drivers to beat in the FREC classification.

Stromsted started the test on top with a 1m27.493s to lead Bilinski by 0.375s, then in session two Bilinski set a 1m26.861s to lead Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues and Pedro Clerot by 0.066s and 0.357s respectively.

In session three he improved to 1m26.640s, with Stromsted 0.403s behind in second place, and a 1m26.854s in session four put him on top by 0.167s over Stromsted. Monolite Racing’s Nikita Bedrin was third fastest in session three, and Domingues was third in session four. He and Clerot failed to improve on their personal bests from session two.

Wednesday started off significantly slower, with Stromsted topping session five with a 1m32.179s laptime. He led team-mate Edgar Pierre by 0.854s and Bilinski by 0.928s.

Bilinski returned to the top in session six, setting a 1m26.916s to outpace Stromsted by 0.242s. VAR’s Brando Badoer was 0.39s behind in third.

The majority of drivers set their fastest laps in session seven, and Bilinski led the way with a 1m26.440s. Stromsted was 0.29s behind and his team-mate Giovanni Maschio was 0.69s off the pace in third.

A 1m27.130s put Bilinski on top of the final session by 0.165s over Stromsted and Badoer. Domingues was 0.299s behind and Pierre improved to be 0.408s off the pace in fifth.

The F4 teams had their own sessions. US Racing’s Gianmarco Pradel topped six of them, with PHM Racing’s James Egozi and Jenzer’s Shimo Zhang fastest in the other two. Seven drivers set their best laps in the final session, where Pradel, Egozi and Zhang were covered by just 0.02s at the top. Less than a tenth of a second split the top two in three of the sessions.

Test results