Photo: Malcom Griffiths/FIA Formula 2
George Russell was fastest on the final day of Formula 2’s first pre-season test at Paul Ricard, with his ART Grand Prix team-mate Jack Aitken second on the time-sheets.
Russell set a 1m42.396s in the morning session, which was 0.170s slower than Lando Norris’ benchmark set on Wednesday.
Aitken was just under two tenths adrift of the driver who beat him to the 2017 GP3 title.
Nyck de Vries completed the top three for Prema Racing ahead of former ART driver Alex Albon, who topped the afternoon session with a?1m42.923s.
Haas Formula 1 junior Arjun Maini was second fastest in the afternoon and fifth overall, with Louis Deletraz sixth for F2 newcomers Charouz Racing System.
The Carlin duo of Sergio Sette Camara and day one and two pacesetter?Norris were seventh and eighth quickest.
Dan Ticktum, who took over from Williams young driver Oliver Rowland in substituting for the ill Nicholas Latifi at DAMS, achieved the ninth fastest time (fourth in the afternoon) on his first day in F2 machinery, ahead of the Arden pair of Maximilian Gunther and Honda protege Nirei Fukuzumi.
Gunther ground to a halt just minutes into the afternoon session but recovered to post the fifth fastest time of the afternoon.
Also hitting trouble was Sean Gelael and?Roy Nissany, who both stopped on the?Mistral Straight. Antonio Fuoco, Artem Markelov and Ralph Boschung were among the drivers encountering mechanical?issues.
The F2 field will reconvene on March 21 at Bahrain for the second collective test.
Combined day three times
| Pos | Driver | Team | Morning | Afternoon |
| 1 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.396 | 1:44.356 |
| 2 | Jack Aitken | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.588 | 1:45.282 |
| 3 | Nyck De Vries | Prema Racing | 1:42.759 | 1:44.742 |
| 4 | Alexander Albon | DAMS | 1:42.925 | 1:42.923 |
| 5 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz Racing System | 1:43.239 | 1:43.428 |
| 6 | Sergio Sette Camara | Carlin | 1:43.269 | 1:43.597 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | Carlin | 1:43.287 | 1:43.276 |
| 8 | Maximilian Gunther | Arden | 1:43.350 | 1:43.330 |
| 9 | Nirei Fukuzumi | Arden | 1:43.501 | 1:44.844 |
| 10 | Daniel Ticktum | DAMS | 1:43.503 | 1:43.310 |
| 11 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:43.575 | 1:44.250 |
| 12 | Sean Gelael | Prema Racing | 1:43.731 | 1:43.998 |
| 13 | Luca Ghiotto | Campos Racing | 1:43.755 | 1:43.610 |
| 14 | Arjun Maini | Trident | 1:43.851 | 1:43.061 |
| 15 | Antonio Fuoco | Charouz Racing System | 1:43.899 | 1:43.572 |
| 16 | Ralph Boschung | MP Motorsport | 1:43.948 | 1:44.163 |
| 17 | Roy Nissany | Campos Racing | 1:44.048 | 1:44.782 |
| 18 | Tadasuke Makino | Russian Time | 1:44.164 | 1:43.961 |
| 19 | Santino Ferrucci | Trident | 1:44.239 | 1:43.985 |
| 20 | Roberto Merhi | MP Motorsport | 1:44.377 | 1:44.909 |