Mini leads Prema 1-2 at Barcelona in afternoon on day one of FIA F3 test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Prema’s Gabriele Mini was fastest in the second session of FIA Formula 3’s post-season Barcelona test.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon topped the times at the very start of the three-hour afternoon session, before team-mate Sophia Floersch and then Campos Racing’s Sebastian Montoya and Mari Boya lowered the pace.

Just 15 seconds after Boya got the top he was shuffled down to second as Trident’s Oliver Goethe set a 1m28.656s.

It took until 12 minutes in for more than 10 drivers to have set a lap, and the drivers who headed out around that time were all more than three seconds slower than Goethe.

By the 19-minute mark the picture looked a bit better with 21 of the 30 drivers having a laptime next to their name, and Prema trio Dino Beganovic, Mini and Arvid Lindblad went third, fourth and fifth fastest.

After half an hour there were still no laptimes from the Hitech GP drivers, and Boya had usurped Goethe by 0.1 seconds.

Most had returned to the pits three quarters of an hour in, and only Prema was out on track at the one-hour mark. It took until some time after that for Hitech’s drivers to leave the pits, and they slotted into seventh, eighth and ninth places before returning to the pits.

The track was all but empty until the Hitech drivers went for some more laps halfway through the session, with Browning rising to third place with a 1m28.730s.

It was silent again 10 minutes later, and approaching the final hour a few drivers did some outlaps then mosted head out once the clock starting ticking down from 60. But most were back in their garages after 15 minutes, and the only noticable change to the timesheet was ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell completing a top 10 who had lapped sub-1m30s.

With 25 minutes to go there was finally another improvement in pace at the top, as Mini went fastest by 0.029s and Trident’s Sami Meguetounif set a 1m28.808s to rise up to sixth place. But then the track emptied again.

Mini found more pace when he headed back out with seven minutes to go, setting a 1m28.368s. Beganovic and Fornaroli also improved to knock Boya down to fourth place, and Meguetounif found another one-and-a-half tenths of a second on before to go fifth fastest and knock Goethe down another spot.

Lauens van Hoepen was another late improver in eighth place, ahead of Lindblad and ART Grand Prix team-mate Nikola Tsolov. In total 17 drivers met the chequered flag.

Afternoon session results