Tsolov goes quickest as he joins F3’s Jerez test on second morning

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Nikola Tsolov joined Campos Racing’s line-up for the second day of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing at Jerez, and topped the morning session.

Trident’s Noah Stromsted led the way after the first half-hour, setting a 1m30.072s to lead Tsolov by 0.424 seconds. Rodin Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski and Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne had also lapped sub-1m31s at that point.

Just after the half-hour mark, Campos’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak set a 1m30.255s to go second fastest, with Trident’s Rafael Camara jumping up to fourth.

Soon the track was super busy and almost everyone was setting personal bests. Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu and Noel Leon rose to third and fourth, Rodin’s Freddie Slater demoted Tsolov to sixth, Camara improved again in seventh place and three others set sub-1m31s laps.

As quickly as the action had begun, the track then emptied again. Before pitting, Campos’s Mari Boya had lowered the pace to 1m29.881s to lead Tsolov by 0.051s. Ugochukwu has improved his pace and not his position, while Inthraphuvasak found himself in seventh behind Stenshorne, his team-mate Joshua Dufek and Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett.

Red flags waved 49 minutes in due to an incident for Prema’s Brando Badoer, and once green flags waved again drivers rushed out of the pits.

Tsolov set the session’s fastest lap shortly before the end of the first hour, a 1m29.858s. Stenshorne improved to 1m30.075s in fourth, and Trident’s Charlie Wurz set a 1m30.367s in 10th.

Two minutes later Stenshorne went quicker again, but only by 0.025s so stayed in third, and a 1m30.263s from Slater put him eighth.

Inthraphuvasak jumped up to sixth place 75 minutes in, and not long after Tsolov utilised clean air to improve by 0.1s and have a gap of 0.123s over team-mate Boya.

Camara crept back into the top 10 at the end of the second hour, only for Wurz to set a personal best in seventh and knock him back down to 11th. Although there was plenty of running in the final hour, few personal-best laptimes were set.

Morning session results