Alpine junior Collet ends FIA F3’s first pre-season test on top

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Alpine Academy member Caio Collet ended the first pre-season FIA Formula 3 Championship test on top, as his MP Motorsport team-mate Victor Martins failed to record a lap in the final session.

Collet traded the fastest lap of the three-hour Sunday afternoon session with Prema’s Dennis Hauger, both aiming for a new track record for the Dallara F3 2019 car.

It was Collet who won out with a 1m18.592s, which was 0.119 seconds faster than Hauger’s best lap.

Very close to matching Hauger were his fellow Red Bull proteges Jak Crawford, who had been at the top of the times through the first half of the session for Hitech GP, and Jonny Edgar.

While Carlin driver Edgar improved through the afternoon, Crawford’s lap was set towards the start of the session.

Formula 2 racer Matteo Nannini was fifth fastest for HWA Racelab, ahead of Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Frederik Vesti (ART Grand Prix), Clement Novalak (Trident), Mikhael Belov (Charouz Racing System), Olli Caldwell (Prema) and Alexander Smolyar (ART).

There were several red flag periods that punctuated the afternoon running, the first caused by Jenzer Motorsport’s morning pacesetter Calan Williams crashing at turn 10. Hitech’s Honda junior Ayumu Iwasa was the next to bring action to a stop, and then Charouz’s Reshad de Gerus ground to a halt at turn 10 with 45 minutes to go.

Several drivers didn’t keep their fastest laps from the session, including MP’s Tijmen van der Helm and Trident’s David Schumacher.

The second pre-season FIA F3 test takes place at Barcelona on April 21/22.

Test results