Home Featured Marcus Armstrong fastest for Prema in first day of FIA F3 testing at Paul Ricard

Marcus Armstrong fastest for Prema in first day of FIA F3 testing at Paul Ricard

by Craig Woollard

Photo: FIA F3

Prema?s Marcus Armstrong was fastest in the first day of pre-season testing for the new FIA Formula 3 Championship at Paul Ricard.

Ferrari Academy driver Armstrong was only 15th in the morning session but found more than two seconds to vault himself up to the top of the timesheets by the end of the day with a time of?1m49.243s.

Fellow Prema and Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman was third in both sessions. The drivers sandwiched Sauber Junior Team by Charouz driver Lirim Zendeli, who posted his fastest time, which was three tenths off Armstrong?s best, late in the session.

Leonardo Pulcini, driving for Hitech, ended the day fourth, after setting the second-fastest time in the morning.

The relatively clean morning of running was only really halted when MP Motorsports? Richard Verschoor and Trident?s Devlin DeFrancesco stopped simultaneously on the circuit.

The pair ended the day fifth and 22nd respectively. Simo Laaksonen (also of MP) ended the day sixth.

Red flags were brought out twice in the afternoon after Carlin Buzz Racing?s Logan Sargeant and later Hitech?s Juri Vips came to a halt at different points in the session.

Vips ended the day a somewhat unrepresentative 29th in the afternoon, after setting the fifth-fastest time in the morning. Sargeant ended the day 13th.

Campos? Sebastian Fernandez, ART?s Christian Lundgaard (who was fastest in the morning) and David Beckmann, and Prema?s Jehan Daruvala rounded out the top 10 at the end of the first day, all setting times below the 1m50s barrier.

 

Combined day three times
Pos? Driver Team Morning Afternoon
1 Marcus Armstrong Prema 1:51.344 1:49.243
2 Lirim Zendeli Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1:51.434 1:49.578
3 Robert Shwartzman Prema 1:49.838 1:49.634
4 Leonardo Pulcini Hitech GP 1:49.772 1:49.656
5 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix 1:49.685 1:49.817
6 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 1:50.606 1:49.740
7 Simo Laaksonen MP Motorsport 1:50.767 1:49.770
8 Sebastian Fernandez Campos Racing 1:50.845 1:49.793
9 David Beckmann ART Grand Prix 1:51.017 1:49.893
10 Jehan Daruvala Prema 1:51.846 1:49.956
11 Alex Peroni Campos Racing 1:50.545 1:50.014
12 Niko Kari Trident 1:50.078 1:50.528
13 Yuki Tsunoda Jenzer Motorsport 1:51.326 1:50.117
14 Logan Sargeant Carlin 1:50.762 1:50.181
15 Juri Vips Hitech GP 1:50.202 1:53.097
16 Liam Lawson MP Motorsport 1:52.759 1:50.317
17 Andreas Estner Jenzer Motorsport 1:52.792 1:50.335
18 Raoul Hyman Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1:52.459 1:50.493
19 Max Fewtrell ART Grand Prix 1:50.498 1:50.715
20 Pedro Piquet Trident 1:50.597 1:50.613
21 Felipe Drugovich Carlin 1:52.384 1:50.619
22 Fabio Scherer Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1:51.522 1:50.858
23 Devlin DeFrancesco Trident 1:52.026 1:50.877
24 Artem Petrov Jenzer Motorsport 1:53.804 1:50.906
25 Yifei Ye Hitech GP 1:51.776 1:50.927
26 Teppei Natori Carlin 1:51.945 1:51.045
27 Bent Viscaal HWA Racelab 1:51.944 1:51.244
28 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing 1:52.198 1:51.660
29 Keyvan Andres HWA Racelab 1:54.357 1:51.741
30 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab 2:21.077 no time