Campos’s Ernesto Rivera quickest in last FIA F3 test session at Jerez

Photo: Red Bull

FIA Formula 3’s first post-season test at Jerez concluded with Ernesto Rivera setting the pace in the afternoon session on day two.

The Mexican led Campos Racing team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu by 0.285 seconds, with drivers spending the three-hour session mostly accumulating laps rather than focus on improving their pace from earlier in the test.

This was shown by how spread out the top five were, as Jin Nakamura was 0.648s off Rivera’s paces and his Hitech GP team-mates Michael Shin and Fionn McLaughlin trailed by 0.992s and 1.156s.

Rivera’s benchmark 1m30.605s lap was set within the first 20 minutes, at which point the top five for the afternoon was set.

Only half of the 30-car field had set laptimes half an hour in, and that number had only grown to 20 after another 15 minutes.

DAMS’ drivers headed out 53 minutes in, and ART Grand Prix’s trio remained in the pits until the second hour.

The first long runs were attempted by Trident and Van Amersfoort Racing’s line-ups half an hour in, with AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides following.

His team-mates embarked on long runs at the end of the first hour, along with Prema and Rodin Motorsport’s drivers.

The track was quiet early in the second hour, at which point Campos and Hitech attempted long runs and DAMS’ drivers improved their pace at the bottom of the top 10.

By the session’s halfway mark the track was very quiet, with Rivera, Trident’s Noah Stromsted and Kanato Le the only drivers not in the pits.

The inactivity of many continued through the next half-hour, although Campos’s Theophile Nael headed out to set flying laps and rose to sixth place, 1.398s off Rivera’s pace.

The number of drivers on track reached double figures again with 25 minutes remaining, and after ART GP’s Taito Kato headed back out he jumped from 23rd to 10th with 14 minutes to go.

That shuffled Benavides down to 12th, but he soon left the pits and on an increasingly busy track was able to improve to eighth while Stromsted slotted into ninth. Both then returned to the pits.

Van Amersfoort’s Bruno del Pino set a session-high 57 laps, with team-mates Hiyu Yamakoshi and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr, Shin, Benavides, and Prema’s James Wharton and Louis Sharp also all reaching a half-century of laps.

FIA F3’s second post-season test is at Barcelona on October 15/16.

Additional reporting by Ida Wood

Afternoon session results