Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne tops final FIA F3 test session at Jerez

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The first post-season FIA Formula 3 test at Jerez concluded with Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne topping the Friday afternoon session.

Stenshorne was on top almost from start to finish with the 1m31.717s laptime he set on his third tour of the circuit being the fastest lap of the afternoon.

He ended the first of the session’s three hours with a gap of 0.166 seconds at the top of the timesheet to team-mate Luke Browning, with Jenzer Motorsport drivers Charlie Wurz, Matias Zagazeta and Max Esterson 0.225s, 0.393s and 0.413s behind respectively in third, fourth and fifth.

Cian Shields put the third of Hitech’s cars into sixth place, an improvement on his performances from previous sessions, and Prema’s Gabriele Mini was seventh fastest. MP Motorsport’s Hadrien David and Prema’s Dino Beganovic were also within a second of the pace.

The focus switched more to long runs in the session, as drivers totted up a lot of laps but few improved on the pace they set early on.

There was drama with 24 minutes to go as red flags waved, but a few minutes later everyone was heading back out on track and the order of the top 10 was still unchanged.

With 10 minutes left on the clock a 1m32.791s from PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard lifted him to 12th place, while a few minutes earlier team-mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak had gone ninth fastest. Shuffled out of the top 10 was ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen.

Although Van Amersfoort Racing’s drivers propped up the session timesheet, they also set the most laps with each doing 51 or more.

Afternoon session results