Hitech’s Ayumu Iwasa tops final FIA F3 test session at Jerez

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Hitech GP’s Ayumu Iwasa topped the afternoon session on the second and last day of the in-season FIA Formula 3 Championship test at Jerez.

The Japanese driver was the only person to lap quicker than 1m30s, following a morning session in which Trident’s Clement Novalak set a 1m28.677s.

Iwasa’s session-topping lap was set six minutes into the three-hour session, used mostly for long runs on Pirelli’s medium compound tyre and with all but four of the active drivers recording over 30 laps.

The Prema duo of Dennis Hauger and Olli Caldwell, who are first and second in the drivers’ standings after the opening round of the season at Barcelona, were second and third fastest with laps posted 45 minutes into the session.

Jak Crawford was less than 0.05s slower than Caldwell, and like Iwasa didn’t improve on the lap he set at the very start, and his Hitech team-mate Roman Stanek was fifth fastest and 0.636s off the pace of the fastest lap.

Carlin’s Jonny Edgar was sixth, and Jenzer’s Calan Williams was the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Lorenzo Colombo (Campos Racing), Jack Doohan (Trident) and Arthur Leclerc (Prema) rounded out the top 10 times. Doohan was a relatively improver in the top half of the order having set his fastest lap in the second half of the session.

Charouz Racing System’s Logan Sargeant was absent yet again, but team-mate Enzo Fittipaldi did take part as he now potentially faces a rush to travel to America in time to compete in Indy Pro 2000 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday.

Novalak was 20th fastest after setting the pace in the morning session, although the Frenchman was one of a handful of drivers to focus on race simulations and put in over 50 laps.

Test results