Ugochukwu holds firm to top opening day of FIA F3 test in Austria

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu concluded the first day of FIA Formula 3’s in-season test at the Red Bull Ring at the top of the timesheets.

The American’s time of a 1m20.368s was enough to hold off Tuukka Taponen who was 0.078 seconds behind.

The morning session featured a slow start to action before drivers returned to the track with Prema’s James Wharton setting the early pace with a 1m30.918s.

The first red flag of the test came out for ART’s Kanato Le who found the gravel at turn 7, just after AIX’s Brad Benavides had lowered the benchmark to a 1m21.870s.

Running resumed but this time it was a different Prema driver taking to the top, Louis Sharp going fastest with a 1m20.755s with Wharton tucking in behind.

The red flag flew again with an hour to go as the third Prema driver Jose Garfias found the gravel trap at the final corner, halting running briefly.

As cars returned to the track for the final hour, times improved. Benavides went fastest before he was toppled firstly by Trident’s Freddie Slater and then Ugochukwu, whose time of a 1m20.368s was enough to hold off a late charge from MP’s Taponen who tucked into second place with Slater completing the top three.

The afternoon session arrived with ART’s Taito Kato leading an early 1-2-3 for the team.

After Trident’s Noah Stromsted caused a brief red flag, the ART drivers quickly dropped down the order as Hitech’s Jin Nakamura found pace to set a 1m21.326s leading teammate Michael Shin.

Focus quickly shifted to long runs for a large portion of the afternoon up until the final hour when Stromsted shot to the top of the times with a 1m20.451s leading his teammates Slater and Matteo De Palo.

Nicola Lacorte found time in the dying stages of the session to send his DAMS entry to third with a 1m20.932s with Sharp tucking in behind. Nobody could beat the Trident duo though and they ended the afternoon session at the top of the timesheets.

Despite only managing a 1m21.142s in the afternoon session, Ugochukwu’s morning time was enough to see him hold top spot ahead of Taponen. Stromsted completed the top three with Slater in fourth.

Having set the fourth fastest time in the morning session, Rodin’s Brando Badoer completed the overall top five with a 1m20.675s having also managed to complete the third most laps in the afternoon session with 45 to his name.

Day 1 results