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Ilott ends official F3 testing on top for Prema

by Peter Allen

Prema team-mates Callum Ilott and Maximilian Gunther demonstrated their status as FIA Formula 3 Championship title favourites by heading the final two days of official pre-season testing at the Red Bull Ring.

It was Briton Ilott, who has joined Gunther at Prema from Van Amersfoort Racing for 2017, who was ahead on both occasions with a margin of over one tenth over his German colleague.

Ilott was the only driver to get beneath the 1m23s mark during the two days, posting a 1m22.950s on Wednesday morning before Gunther topped the afternoon running.

Rookie Lando Norris ? quickest on the opening day of official pre-season testing at the Hungaroring last week ? showed hints that he might be able to challenge the third-year Prema duo this year with the third-best time on day one, an honour that was taken by compatriot Jake Hughes on Wednesday.

Hughes was two thousandths of a second quicker than Joel Eriksson, who in turn had two hundredths in hand over Harrison Newey, the driver that ended the Hungaroring running on top.

David Beckmann, Tadasuke Makino, Guan Yu Zhou, Joey Mawson and Pedro Piquet rounded out the top 10, all lapping faster than Ilott?s Tuesday benchmark.