Slater starts FIA F3 pre-season testing on top at Barcelona

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident’s Freddie Slater set the fastest lap on the first day of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

There were two three-hour sessions, and in the morning there was little track activity in the first 90 minutes. Theophile Nael (Campos Racing) led Kanato Le (ART Grand Prix) by 0.355 seconds with a 1m43.188s lap at that point, and only 14 drivers had recorded laptimes. Fernando Barrichello (AIX Racing) had just triggered the first red flag period on the wet track.

Ten minutes later, Hiyu Yamakoshi (Van Amersfoort Racing) lowered the pace by 1.252s. His team-mate Bruno del Pino then got within 0.061s of the new benchmark, but Yamakoshi improved to 1m41.9s on his next lap. Pedro Clerot (Rodin Motorsport) soon made it a top three covered by 0.098s as most drivers remained in the pits.

Taito Kato (ART GP) was next to lead the way, by 0.951s, and Christian Ho (Rodin) moved up to second but was 2.653s off the pace once Kato improved to 1m39.058s.

When Le lapped 0.831s shy of Kato with 67 minutes to go, only those two were active. Enzo Deligny (VAR) cut Kato’s advantage to 0.215s in the final hour, and the circuit remained quiet. Brando Badoer (Rodin) broke the 1m39s barrier, and had a big gap until Hitech GP’s stand-in driver Tim Tramnitz set a 1m37.188s with 43 minutes remaining.

His team-mate Jin Nakamura lowered the pace to 1m36.795s four minutes later while out alone, and there was so little track action thereon that 11 drivers ended session one sans laptimes. Barrichello meanwhile had several of his deleted due to being underfuelled.

In contrast, half of the field headed straight out in the afternoon session. Gerrard Xie (DAMS) was first to the top, then Louis Sharp (Prema), Tuukka Taponen (MP Motorsport) and Kato before the first runs ended. A 1m29.118s was the time to beat, with 0.071s splitting a top three completed by Le.

A second covered the top 17 half an hour in, with the track never overly busy. There was change at the end of hour one as Le lowered the pace to 1m28.742s, leading team-mates Kato and Gladysz by 0.232s and 0.327s respectively.

Tramnitz rose to fifth with a laptime 0.477s off Le’s best 79 minutes in, and a few minutes later Taponen got within 0.129s of Le.

Niko Lacorte (DAMS) snuck into fourth before the next runs ended approaching the session’s halfway mark, and there was drama when drivers headed back out. Deligny triggered red flags with 80 minutes to go, and before anyone could improve following the restart there was another stoppage caused by Mattia Colnaghi (MP) who was in seventh place at the time.

He was demoted a spot 53 minutes from the end as Brad Benavides (AIX) went 0.033s faster than him and 0.46s slower than Le to rise to sixth.

Kato caused the next red flag interruption, and the next improvements came in the final half-hour. Badoer went seventh quickest, and nobody above him posted personal bests for ending their runs.

There was more change with 10 minutes to go, as Ugo Ugochukwu (Campos) lapped 0.116s off Le’s long-standing benchmark and Noah Stromsted (Trident) was a further 0.066s off in fourth.

James Wharton (Prema) bettered Stromsted by 0.043s with eight minutes left of the day, and a minute later Slater posted a 1m28.411s that put him on top by 0.331s and would not be beaten.

At the same time, Sharp pipped Taponen by 0.003s for fourth before the track began to empty. A second covered the top 21.

Day one results