Photo: F3 Asian Championship
Evans GP’s Isack Hadjar led the first free practice session of the Asian Formula 3 season after a flurry of late improvements from the 23-car grid at Dubai Autodrome.
The French Formula 4 graduate ended the singular session 0.226 seconds clear of Pinnacle Motorsport’s Pierre-Louis Chovet and 0.325s ahead of Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema’s Guanyu Zhou, who had been setting the pace in the tests before the season opener.
New Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa, who won last year’s French F4 title, was fourth fastest for Hitech GP while Dino Beganovic (Prema) and Roman Stanek (Hitech) were fifth and sixth ahead of Iwasa’s Red Bull stablemate and Zhou’s Formula 2 rival Jehan Daruvala.
Mumbai Falcons driver Daruvala improved late on to get to 0.520s off Hadjar’s pace, and was 0.010s clear of his own team-mate Kush Maini in the all-Indian squad.
Evans GP’s Irina Sidorkova, who will be racing in W Series this year, propped up the timesheet some 2.692s off the pace, having struggled with bruising in testing in her first proper weekend in a Regional F3 car.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isack Hadjar | Evans GP | 1m33.989s | 15 | |
| 2 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m34.215s | +0.226s | 15 |
| 3 | Guanyu Zhou | Abu Dhabi Racinh by Prema | 1m34.314s | +0.325s | 15 |
| 4 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | 1m34.368s | +0.379s | 17 |
| 5 | Dino Beganovic | Abu Dhabi Racinh by Prema | 1m34.433s | +0.444s | 15 |
| 6 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | 1m34.487s | +0.498s | 16 |
| 7 | Jehan Daruvala | Mumbai Falcons | 1m34.509s | +0.520s | 10 |
| 8 | Kush Maini | Mumbai Falcons | 1m34.519s | +0.530s | 14 |
| 9 | Reece Ushijima | Hitech GP | 1m34.672s | +0.683s | 16 |
| 10 | Cem Bolukbasi | BlackArts Racing | 1m34.829s | +0.840s | 16 |
| 11 | Roy Nissany | Hitech GP | 1m34.906s | +0.917s | 16 |
| 12 | Roberto Faria | Motorscape | 1m35.041s | +1.052s | 15 |
| 13 | Rafael Villagomez | BlackArts Racing | 1m35.107s | +1.118s | 15 |
| 14 | Nicola Marinangeli | Motorscape | 1m35.132s | +1.143s | 15 |
| 15 | Alexandre Bardinon | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m35.186s | +1.197s | 17 |
| 16 | Casper Stevenson | Evans GP | 1m35.199s | +1.210s | 15 |
| 17 | Lorenzo Fluxa | BlackArts Racing | 1m35.356s | +1.367s | 17 |
| 18 | Alessio Deledda | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m35.596s | +1.607s | 15 |
| 19 | Patrik Pasma | Evans GP | 1m35.626s | +1.637s | 10 |
| 20 | Zdenek Chovanec | BlackArts Racing | 1m35.887s | +1.898s | 16 |
| 21 | Amna Al Qubaisi | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | 1m36.311s | +2.322s | 15 |
| 22 | Matthias Luethen | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m36.524s | +2.535s | 15 |
| 23 | Irina Sidorkova | Evans GP | 1m36.681s | +2.692s | 16 |