Kato fastest on final day of FIA F3 test at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Taito Kato finished at the top of the timesheets as FIA Formula 3’s two day test at the Red Bull Ring in Austria concluded.

Having managed a 1m21.251s on the opening day of testing, Kato improved on that time by 0.954 seconds to beat Prema’s Louis Sharp.

Times began to come in early on in the morning session, Trident setting the benchmark with Freddie Slater on a 1m21.667s before his teammate, Noah Stromsted found pace to dislodge the Brit with a 1m21.585s.

The following lap the Dane improved further, a 1m20.832s now the time to beat. It wasn’t long though before the first red flag of the day arrived, Kato stopping out on track and halting running.

As running resumed, Stromsted continued to go from strength to strength, bettering his previous time to a 1m20.336s, and beating the fastest time set on the opening day by Ugo Ugochukwu, a 1m20.368s.

Two red flags in quick succession halted any meaningful running, Hitech’s Michael Shin stopping on track before Rodin’s Brando Badoer found the gravel at the final turn.

As running resumed once more, Stromsted remained at the front, 0.075 clear of Tuukka Taponen in second with Slater still third.

With over half the morning complete, Kato returned to the track and shot to the top with a 1m20.297s as Sharp tucked into second.

The fourth red flag of the morning was required with an hour remaining, this time for another Prema driver James Wharton, but even after running resumed nobody could dethrone Kato with Sharp and Stromsted completing the top three.

In the afternoon session the teams switched their focus to longer runs ahead of race weekend in Monaco in two weeks’ time.

The AIX Racing cars left the garage early on to set a string of fastest laps with American Brad Benavides eventually settling at the top with a 1m21.092s.

AIX would remain the team to beat with nobody able to top Benavides’ time as track action lulled for the remainder of the day as teams focused on long runs.

Further down the top 10, after his venture into the gravel in the morning, Badoer emerged as the closest competitor to Benavides with a 1m21.129s before Bruno Del Pino left it late to move into third with a 1m21.894s.

Del Pino would later have his afternoon times deleted for a technical infringement, as would Sharp for not complying with the tyre allocation.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi recording the most amount of laps, the Japanese driver logging 66 laps in the final session of the day.

Day 2 results