Photo: Malcolm Griffiths / FIA F3 Championship
Marcus Armstrong beat championship leading Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman to the top in FIA Formula 3 Championship free practice in Sochi.
It wasn’t the regular names at the top in the first half of the session, with Sauber Junior Team by Charouz’s Lirim Zendeli fighting over first place with Hitech GP’s Yifei Ye.
Trident’s Pedro Piquet then took over the lead position, before Ferrari juniors Armstrong and Shwartzman finally started setting a strong pace.
Armstrong ended the session with a 1m53.504s lap, with Shwartzman improving just before a Virtual Safety Car period to go second fastest. Piquet’s team-mate Niko Kari was third, ahead of Shwartzman’s sole title rival and team-mate Jehan Daruvala.
After briefly appearing at the top of the timesheet, Christian Lundgaard fell a second back to seventh place behind early pacesetters Ye and Zendeli.
Championship debutants David Schumacher and Charles Leong were 20th and 28th for Campos Racing and Jenzer Motorsport respectively.
Free Practice results
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcus Armstrong | Prema | 1m53.504s |
| 2 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +0.328s |
| 3 | Niko Kari | Trident | +0.548s |
| 4 | Jehan Daruvala | Prema | +0.584s |
| 5 | Yifei Ye | Hitech GP | +0.654s |
| 6 | Lirim Zendeli | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | +0.947s |
| 7 | Christian Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | +1.044s |
| 8 | Max Fewtrell | ART Grand Prix | +1.070s |
| 9 | Pedro Piquet | Trident | +1.124s |
| 10 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | +1.164s |
| 11 | Raoul Hyman | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | +1.274s |
| 12 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | +1.281s |
| 13 | Felipe Drugovich | Carlin | +1.282s |
| 14 | Leonardo Pulcini | Hitech GP | +1.332s |
| 15 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | +1.431s |
| 16 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Trident | +1.630s |
| 17 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +1.633s |
| 18 | Simo Laaksonen | MP Motorsport | +1.681s |
| 19 | Bent Viscaal | HWA Racelab | +1.726s |
| 20 | David Schumacher | Campos Racing | +1.754s |
| 21 | Teppei Natori | Carlin | +1.799s |
| 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Jenzer Motorsport | +1.883s |
| 23 | Sebastian Fernandez | Campos Racing | +1.910s |
| 24 | Fabio Scherer | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | +1.956s |
| 25 | Keyvan Andres | HWA Racelab | +2.095s |
| 26 | Alessio Deledda | Campos Racing | +2.634s |
| 27 | Andreas Estner | Jenzer Motorsport | +2.673s |
| 28 | Charles Leong | Jenzer Motorsport | +3.468s |
| 29 | Liam Lawson | MP Motorsport | +27.584s |