Bortoleto starts FIA F3’s in-season Barcelona test on top

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

FIA Formula 3 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto was the fastest driver on the opening morning of in-season testing at Barcelona.

Despite temperatures being fairly mild early on, and therefore optimal for testing with a limited supply of tyres, there were no laptimes set until 22 minutes into the three-hour session when Hitech GP’s Luke Browning set a 1m39.934s.

Prior to that there had been track action, with the entirety of the field heading out at least twice to do an outlap and then come straight back to the pits.

Browning improved to 1m38.564s and was still the only driver to have shown their pace after half an hour had passed.

More cars took to the track 10 minutes later, and MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto set a new 1m28.068s benchmark. Christian Mansell (Campos Racing), Taylor Barnard (Jenzer Motorsport), and Pepe Marti (Campos) also posted 1m28s laps, with 17 cars putting a time on the board.

Colapinto was shuffled from top spot as the session entered its second hour, with Prema’s Zak O’Sullivan setting a 1m28.038s to go fastest. Hitech’s Sebastian Montoya slotted into third place, with Mansell pushed out of the top 10 as the field finally began to show their pace.

Marti was the first driver into the 1m27s, and the pace gradually improved in the second hour. Bortoleto set a 1m27.221s to place himself on top of the timesheet, with ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy postinga 1m27.424s and Prema’s Dino Beganovic setting a 1m27.447s.

The track warmed up slightly following that, and most of the field spent the rest of the session in the pits. That meant there were no changes to the top half of the timesheet in the final hour, with Bortoleto leading a top 10 filled by Saucy, Beganovic, Barnard, O’Sullivan, ART GP’s Gabriele Mini, MP’s Mari Boya, Montoya, Prema’s Paul Aron and Marti.

Late on there were on-track problems for Marti and Mansell, with both unable to return to the pits.

Test session results