Home Featured Colapinto closely followed by Saucy at top of F3 afternoon session

Colapinto closely followed by Saucy at top of F3 afternoon session

by Ida Wood

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto was the latest driver to take to the top of the times in post-season FIA Formula 3 Championship testing at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.

The Formula Regional European Championship graduate led the way early on, setting a 1m22.757s to set the pace during the first 15 minutes of the three-hour session.

He scrubbed a second off that as the session went on, with his fastest laptime – a 1m21.759s – coming with nine minutes to go.

Between Colapinto’s two spells at the top, Red Bull juniors Jonny Edgar (Trident) and Jak Crawford (Prema), Alpine junior Caio Collet (MP) and FREC champion Gregoire Saucy (ART Grand Prix) all spent time in first place.

Edgar sat there the longest, going to the top during the first hour and staying there for an hour when many drivers remained in the pits to save tyres.

It was a similar story at the end, as once Colapinto had set his lap there were very few drivers remaining on track. Kaylen Frederick was an exception for Hitech GP and jumped up to sixth, but otherwise the order had already been set with Saucy, Collet and Prema’s Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Paul Aron all within a tenth of Colapinto and Trident’s Roman Stanek only slightly slower than them in sixth.

Zane Maloney (Trident), Crawford and David Vidales (Campos Racing) were less than two tenths slower than Colapinto in seventh to ninth places, and Ollie Bearman was 10th for Prema.

Test results

Pos Name Team Time Gap Laps
1 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport 1m21.759s 51
2 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 1m21.789s +0.030s 41
3 Caio Collet MP Motorsport 1m21.843s +0.054s 40
4 Paul Aron Prema 1m21.857s +0.098s 56
5 Roman Stanek Trident 1m21.864s +0.105s 46
6 Kaylen Frederick Hitech GP 1m21.913s +0.154s 42
7 Zane Maloney Trident 1m21.927s +0.168s 47
8 Jak Crawford Prema 1m21.941s +0.182s 57
9 David Vidales Campos Racing 1m21.951s +0.192s 35
10 Ollie Bearman Prema 1m21.979s +0.220s 57
11 Juan Manuel Correa ART Grand Prix 1m22.144s +0.355s 42
12 Reece Ushijima Van Amersfoort Racing 1m22.219s +0.460s 56
13 Oliver Rasmussen ART Grand Prix 1m22.232s +0.473s 42
14 Johnathan Hoggard Hitech GP 1m22.385s +0.626s 42
15 Pepe Marti Campos Racing 1m22.468s +0.709s 39
16 Filip Ugran Charouz Racing System 1m22.510s +0.751s 50
17 Isack Hadjar Hitech GP 1m22.542s +0.783s 44
18 William Alatalo Jenzer Motorsport 1m22.591s +0.832s 42
19 Jonny Edgar Trident 1m22.739s +0.980s 54
20 Tijmen van der Helm MP Motorsport 1m22.776s +1.017s 43
21 Logan Sargeant Carlin 1m22.839s +1.080s 46
22 Nazim Azman Jenzer Motorsport 1m22.906s +1.147s 44
23 Hunter Yeany Campos Racing 1m22.917s +1.158s 39
24 Rafael Villagomez Charouz Racing System 1m22.944s +1.185s 49
25 Enzo Trulli Jenzer Motorsport 1m22.985s +1.226s 41
26 Laszlo Toth Charouz Racing System 1m23.175s +1.416s 51
27 Ido Cohen Carlin 1m23.185s +1.426s 54
28 Zak O’Sullivan Carlin 1m23.336s +1.577s 38
29 Jack Doohan Van Amersfoort Racing 1m23.541s +1.698s 42
30 Nicola Marinangeli Charouz Racing System 1m23.964s +2.205s 59