Dunne tops wet first morning of FIA F3 pre-season testing in Bahrain

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

FIA Formula 3 Championship teams faced a wet track in Bahrain for their first morning of pre-season testing, and so did little running.

The first session of the three-day test lasted two-and-a-half hours, and all 30 drivers headed out to complete an outlap early on. But only five drivers ventured any further than that at first, with Rodin Motorsport duo Callum Voisin and Joseph Loake completing one timed lap each while Jenzer Motorsport’s trio of drivers did eight laps.

With 10 minutes left of the session they were still the only ones with laptimes on the board, with Jenzer’s Matias Zagazeta having set a 2m00.158s to lead his team-mates Charlie Wurz and Callum Voisin by just 0.023 and 0.627 seconds respectively. Voisin and Loake were seven and 12 seconds off the pace.

PHM Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak had ventured out to do another outlap, then with nine minutes to go more drivers did the same and many of them chose to stay on track after doing so.

MP Motorsport duo Kacper Sztuka and Tim Tramnitz slotted into fourth and fifth with their first laptimes set with less than seven minutes remaining, then on his next lap Tramnitz improved to third while Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe, Prema’s Dino Beganovic, Trident’s Sami Meguetounif and MP’s Alex Dunne appeared on the timesheet.

Dunne went fifth fastest with three-and-a-half minutes to go, then Goethe and Meguetounif broke into the 1m59s to move into the top two places. A minute later Dunne was down to ninth as Beganovic and Fornaroli improved, and in the final two minutes Prema’s Gabriele Mini slotted into third with a 2m00.129s.

Tramnitz became the next driver to lap sub-2m00s, doing so with 19s left on the clock and rising to second place. The chequered flag waved, and Dunne was one of the first to cross the line. He set a 1m59.516s to go top by 0.021s, and Goethe failed to improve on his last lap so could not snatch back top spot.

The drivers immediately below them on the timesheet either pitted or failed to improve, with Fornaroli the next name to set their personal best on the last lap as he went eighth fastest. In total 17 drivers set laptimes.

Morning session results