Motopark and Liam Lawson top pre-event Euroformula Open test at Paul Ricard

Photo: Malcolm Griffiths / FIA F3 Championship

Reigning Toyota Racing Series champion Liam Lawson topped Euroformula Open’s pre-event Paul Ricard test for Motopark on the team’s first official day in the championship.

Motopark had planned to contest FIA European Formula 3 successor Formula European Masters this year, but its cancellation prompted a series switch. All four of the team’s Spiess-powered cars ended up in the top 10 at Paul Ricard, with Lawson setting pace by 0.202 seconds.

Fellow series debutant Double R Racing also looked strong using its HWA engines, with Linus Lundqvist going second fastest for the team.

After topping the morning test session, Fortec Motorsports’ Cameron Das improved on his time in the afternoon, although was slower than both Lawson and Lundqvist.

Motopark filled the fourth and fifth positions with Yuki Tsunoda and Julian Hanses, with Teo Martin Motorsport’s Lukas Dunner the last man to get within a second of Lawson’s time.

Das’s Fortec team-mate Calan Williams was seventh fastest, ahead of Guilherme Samaia (Teo Martin), Carlin’s Teppei Natori and the fourth Motopark car of Marino Sato.

Carlin’s running across its quartet of drivers was limited, with Christian Hahn not making it on track and Billy Monger missing the afternoon test session to suspension damage. Despite this he was still faster than team-mate Nicolai Kjaergaard, who was 2.489s off the pace.

The best of the Piedrafita-powered cars was surprise series returnee Petru Florescu, driving for Drivex School and 11th fastest of the 20 cars that ran in the test. He was 0.766s clear of RP Motorsport’s Pierre-Louis Chovet, with his team-mate Javier Gonzalez a further 0.344s back.

Test results