Mini continues to lead at Barcelona on first afternoon of F3 test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Prema’s Gabriele Mini set the fastest time in the afternoon of the first day of Formula 3 in-season testing at Barcelona.

The Alpine junior topped the times with a late lap which was 0.081 seconds slower than the benchmark set by himself in the morning session. Most drivers put the focus on long runs in the afternoon, with six drivers completing 40 laps or more.

PHM Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak did the most, with a total of 46. His two team-mates did 42 laps each, but all three drivers were over four seconds off the pace.

Campos Racing’s trio kick-started the afternoon action with performance runs as soon as the track went green. Meanwhile, MP Motorsport opted for sending its drivers out for a 24-lap long run, which is one lap shorter than the distance of the feature race at Barcelona.

Trident, Jenzer Motorsport and PHM also devoted the early afternoon to race runs, meaning the track was considerably busier than in the morning.

Conversely, Hitech GP waited almost half of the session before sending its drivers out. The team’s championship leader Luke Browning went second fastest at the end of his run, just 0.050s slower than Campos’s Mari Boya.

The session progressed with drivers continuing to gain valuable mileage after a middle hour of little running.

Mini went fastest 15 minutes from the end of the day, bettering Boya’s long-standing benchmark by 0.231s.

Jenzer’s Max Esterson caused the only red flag period of the day with 10 minutes remaining on the clock, and the session did not restart.

Afternoon session