MP’s Alessandro Giusti starts FIA F3 post-season testing on top

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti set the pace on the first morning of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing at Jerez.

He ended the three-hour session 0.211 seconds clear of Trident’s Freddie Slater, with his MP team-mates both in the top five.

Prema’s James Wharton was first to take to the track but it took just under an hour before representative laptimes began to appear. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr went to the top of the timesheet first with a 1m33.269s.

There was plenty of swapping positions after that, and AIX Racing’s Yevan David was briefly ahead before MP’s Tuukka Taponen set a 1m31.554s to go fastest by 0.2s over team-mate Mattia Colnaghi.

A five-minute red flag period occurred shortly after the one-hour mark, and after the restart Slater went quickest. His team-mate Noah Stromsted slotted into fourth, half a second back.

Drivers switched their focus to long runs during the second hour, meaning Slater remained in first place. He was eventually toppled by Campos Racing’s Ugo Ugochukw, who recorded a 1m31.223s.

As the clock ticked nearer to the final hour MP’s drivers returned to the top. Colnagi briefly went fastest, then Giusti became the first driver to go sub-1m30s. Taponen then made it into third before the last hour of the session began.

Giusti’s 1m30.732s went unbeaten as drivers once again switched their attention to longer runs. With half an hour to go, Slater climbed to second with a 1m30.943s, and later on Carrasquedo secured fourth place by setting a 1m31.087s.

Ugochukwu was shuffled down to sixth ahead of Stromsted, who did the least running of anyone with just 19 laps.

Campos got the most mileage in across its three cars, 104 laps in total, and Ernesto Rivera was eighth fastest for the team.

Rodin Motorsport’s Christian Ho and Trident’s Matteo De Palo were ninth and 10th, and a second covered the top 12.

Morning session results