Barnard quickest amid limited running in F3’s Barcelona practice session

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Taylor Barnard emerged fastest from this morning’s FIA Formula 3 practice session at Barcelona, the Jenzer Motorsport driver continuing to build on his recent improving form.

With drivers largely sitting out the opening 25 minutes, the top times were all set in a 10-minute window in the middle of the 45-minute session before a late red flag stoppafe pevented any improvements in the final minutes.

With the track having been modified to remove the final chicane for this year, Barnard’s benchmark 1m28.831s was almost four seconds quicker than Victor Martins’ best time from F3 practice in 2022.

With the teams having accumulated plenty of data from the in-season test at the circuit and tyre wear potentially being critical, there was no rush to get out on track.

Campos Racing’s trio of cars were first out on track for an initial exploratory lap, as the team celebrates its 25th anniversary, but immediately returned to the pitlane.

PHM Racing by Charouz’s Roberto Faria was the only driver to set a series of flying laps in the early running, with a best lap in that stint of 1m33.036s, despite some wild moments, as the rest of the field opted to remain in the pits.

Faria continued to have the track to himself without improving his pace, until the rest of the field – bar Pepe Marti – finally ventured out almost as one with less than half of practice remaining.

With 15 minutes left, the times began to tumble, and Williams juniors Luke Browning and Franco Colapinto went to the top before being usurped by Barnard who was the first to drop below the 1m29s mark. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Caio Collet and Prema’s Dino Beganovic followed suit.

Inevitably, traffic immediately proved problematic as drivers slowed to find space on the crowded track, with the stewards looking into potential impeding after the session.

With 10 minutes on the clock PHM’s Piotr Wisnicki lost control into turn nine, heading into the gravel backwards and bringing out red flags.

Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto had been on a quick lap, going fastest in the first sector, but was unable to complete his lap, leaving him down in 29th place.

There was an immediate rush to get back out when the session resumed for the final six minutes, Sebastian Montoya fighting his way to the front of the queue ahead of Hitech team-mate Gabriele Mini. Although both were able to improve in sector one, neither was able to maintain pace for the full lap.

Bortoleto was one of the few to improve, jumping up to seventh, half a second off Barnard.

Free practice results