Campos ahead in F3 testing again as Nael tops Barcelona morning times

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Theophile Nael continued Campos Racing’s impressive post-season pace by topping the second morning of testing at Barcelona.

He started Thursday by having all laptimes deleted from Wednesday’s afternoon session due to his car being underweight.

Nobody utilised the first 24 minutes of the three-hour morning session, and AIX Racing’s Yevan David was first to complete a lap. Also on track was Joseph Loake, who had replaced Michael Shin in Hitech GP’s line-up.

Loake pitted at the end of hour one, and was 0.941 seconds off David’s benchmark 1m30.989s. Fifteen minutes later, David improved twice to 1m30.100s.

The track was briefly empty, then approaching the session’s halfway mark MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi and Alessandro Giusti headed out. Their first flying laps were 0.477s and 0.739s off David’s pace, and soon more drivers were lapping.

Colnaghi reduced David’s advantage to 0.288s, with MP team-mate Tuukka Taponen a further 0.012s slower, then Van Amersfoort Racing’s Bruno del Pino lowered the pace by 0.079s and Rodin Motorsport’s Pedro Clerot went third fastest.

Taponen reclaimed third, 0.006s behind David, and del Pino set a 1m29.965s benchmark quickly matched by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi.

Only 11 drivers had set laps, but that changed with 71 minutes left after a large group went out and AIX’s Brad Benavides posted a 1m28.546s to lead David by 0.501s. Four minutes later, Fernando Barrichello lapped 1.215s off the pace but completed an AIX 1-2-3.

Most drivers were pit-bound by the end of hour two, while Loake’s team-mates and Campos and Trident’s drivers headed out for the first time. David was knocked to fifth by VAR’s trio, all within 0.5s of Benavides and with del Pino closest as he trailed by 0.232s.

Trident’s Noah Stromsted and Freddie Slater slotted into sixth and seventh with their first flying laps, before the track became quieter again.

There was a bunch of improvements with 50 minutes to go, and Rodin Motorsport’s Christian Ho went fourth fastest. A second covered the top eight, completed by DAMS’ Gerrard Xie and Rodin’s Pedro Clerot.

Six minutes later Slater and Campos’s Ugo Ugochukwu lapped 0.038s and 0.051s shy of Benavides, and Campos’s Ernesto Rivera improved to sixth. When Nael crossed the line, he desposed Benavides by 0.001s and Rivera was demoted to eighth by VAR’s drivers.

A 15-minute red flag period began 40 minutes from the end due to an incident for Loake, the only driver not to head out once action resumed.

Del Pino moved ahead of Ugochukwu by 0.003s with under 18 minutes remaining, Rivera improved to seventh and personal bests across the field meant a second covered the top 26.

Later Giusti stopped after turn 10 and caused red flags, with all of his laptimes deleted for then not providing a sufficient fuel sample. The session restarted with seven minutes left, and Taponen set a 1m28.459s to go fastest by 0.086s.

Nael beat Taponen by 0.061s in the final minute, and Rivera improved but remained eighth after DAMS’ Niko Lacorte jumped from 19th to fourth, 0.18s off the top, at the end.

Additional reporting by Jacob Awcock

Morning session results