Camara leads the way in wet F3 test session at Barcelona

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident’s Rafael Camara was quickest on a wet final morning of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

Eight drivers headed out when the three-hour session began, and ART Grand Prix’s James Wharton was initially top the times. Trident’s Noah Stromsted was first to lap sub-1m50s, Prema’s Brando Badoer broke into the 1m47s nine minutes in, and shortly after Campos’s Mari Boya set a 1m46.718s.

Prema’s Noel Leon went fastest with a 1m45.934s, and spent two minutes ahead before Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne pipped him by 0.09 seconds. Stromsted improved in fourth, then was demoted a spot by MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz shortly before red flags waved due to Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues stopping.

Once he drove back to the pits, the session restarted at the 20-minute mark. Four minutes later, Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp set a 1m46.037s to climb to third. Soon after, Camara set a new 1m45.700s benchmark then Campos’s Nikola Tsolov went 1.009s faster than him.

Badoer cut Tsolov’s advantage to 0.882s, and red flags returned when a mechanical issue left Trident’s Charlie Wurz stranded on track and MP’s Bruno del Pino went off.

Green flags waved almost 37 minutes in, and Stenshorne became Tsolov’s closest rival with a 1m45.364s. A minute later ART GP’s Tuukka Taponen posted a 1m45.29s, Sharp improved to 1m45.388s in fourth and Tramnitz set a 1m45.72s to go sixth fastest.

Rodin’s Roman Bilinski then jumped up the order, a 1m44.858s putting him 0.413s behind Tsolov, and two minutes later a 1m45.367s moved Boya back up fifth. Tsolov improved to 1m43.631s at the top, leading Sharp and his team-mate Callum Voisin by 0.709s and 1.116s respectively.

Taponen found more pace to return to third, but was still a second off Tsolov, then Stenshorne beat him with a 1m44.552s before red flags appeared after Sharp hit mechanical trouble. He later needed a new gearbox.

Action resumed an hour in, and Taponen improved to 1m44.47s to move back ahead of Stenshorne. Yet again he was pushed back down, as Camara got within 0.612s of Tsolov with a 1m44.243s. Successive improvements from Stromsted brought him to third before another stoppage caused by DAMS’ Matias Zagazeta crashing at turn nine.

There was a 16-minute break, with action resuming 84 minutes in. Stromsted’s upward trajectory continued, as he set a 1m44.126s and Taponen recorded a 1m44.189s to demote Camara to fourth. ART GP’s Laurens van Hoepen went on a run of personal bests that brought him up to second 10 minutes later, and he was just 0.159s shy of Tsolov’s benchmark.

The track quietened down before red flags returned as Domingues went off. The track was drier when action resumed.

Inthraphuvasak jumped to seventh with an hour to go, as Camara maide a marginal gain in fifth. Seven minutes later, Inthraphuvasak bettered him by 0.035s, and later VAR’s Theophile Nael set a 1m44.106s to go from 15th to third.

Tsolov was finally usurped with 49 minutes remaining as van Hoepen went 0.008s faster, and a few minutes on MP’s Alessandro Giusti lapped in 1m44.19s to climb 10 places to sixth. Van Hoepen’s time at the top was ended by a 1m43.298s from Nael, as the track became quiet again.

With a quarter of an hour left on the clock, Camara went on a new tyre run that lifted him to fourth, then to first and with another improvement put him 0.728s clear of the rest of the field as he set a 1m42.570s.

He returned to the pits, as everyone else sought improvements in the final 10 minutes. Stenshorne went third fastest with six minutes to go, then team-mate Dufek trimmed Camara’s gap down to 0.71s.

Bilinski set a 1m43.443s to sit fourth, before Voisin posted a 1m43.194s and got within 0.624s of Camara. Stenshorne improvement again in fifth, then after the chequered flag there were more gains.

Stromsted shot from 13th to second with a 1m32.702s, Voisin was 0.176s slower than him, Tsolov moved back up the order to sixth and Badoer climbed to ninth. Nael and van Hoepen ended the morning in fifth and 11th.

Morning session results