Crawford fastest on day one of Euroformula’s pre-season Barcelona test

Photo: Alfredo Filippone

Red Bull junior Jak Crawford led the way for Motopark on the first day of Euroformula’s pre-season test at Barcelona.

There was one session in the morning, topped by Crawford’s team-mate and series veteran Cameron Das, which included three crashes in an otherwise smooth day.

The first driver to go off was Filip Kaminiarz, driving for Motopark’s Japanese offshoot CryptoTower Racing Team, who damaged his rear wing in the incident and the session was red flagged while his car was recovered.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s new signing Rafael Villagomez also made a trip into the gravel but he escaped without damage.

Das was on top prior to the red flag, but was shuffled down the order after the restart as Crawford, Double R Racing’s Joshua Mason and CryptoTower’s Louis Foster went faster. Neither Das or Mason has announced their 2021 racing plans yet.

Crawford improved several times but Das went back to the top with five minute to go. Their duel for first place continued to the chequered flag, with Crawford’s penultimate lap just 0.003 seconds slower than Das’s benchmark.

The cars returned to track for two afternoon sessions, with laptimes generally slower in the first of those.

BRDC British Formula 3 race-winner Mason was the early pacesetter, and Das rose to the top with 12 minutes to go. He didn’t go any faster on his next seven laps though, and at the end was demoted from first place by Foster and Crawford.

Foster was one of five to improve on their morning pace, along with Motopark’s Vivien Keszthelyi, who was fifth fastest in the session, the morning crashers and the driver in Drivex School’s #35 car who Formula Scout believes to be a teenager with no F3-level experience.

Rubber laid down by the International GT Open test running in parallel made the track grippier for the final session, and Villagomez emerged as the fastest when VAR went on performance runs.

He was only removed from his perch at the top in the closing minutes, after a lengthy spell when the field remained in the pits, and Crawford brought the fastest lap of the day down to a 1m35.732s.

Villagomez’s earlier effort was still good enough for second, as team-mate Casper Stevenson rose to third place a tenth behind him.

Foster and Mason made it three Britons in the top five, while Das came in sixth place overall with the laptime he topped session one with.

Soon-to-debut FIA F3 Championship racer Tijmen van der Helm was also on track in an upgraded GP3 car.

Test results