Nakamura-Berta tops opening day of FIA F3 post-season testing in Jerez

Photo: Formula Motorsport LTD

Trident’s Kean Nakamura-Berta ended the opening day of FIA F3 post-season testing on top with the British driver setting a 1.31.169 to clear Campos’ Ernesto Rivera who topped the morning session.

Morning

Teams opted for a slow start to the morning, prioritising instillation laps for the opening 90 minutes.

AIX were the first to head out on track with James Egozi setting the fastest time of the morning with a 1.34.526, a time he bettered on his next lap, setting a 1.32.680 to lead MP Motorsport’s Maciej Gladysz by half a second.

Egozi’s stint at the front didn’t last long though as Matteo De Palo moved to the front with a 1.31.867. Behind him, his teammate Gladysz improved to jump Egozi and move to within 0.582s of the Italian.

Miguel Costa was next to top the timesheets, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver setting a 1.31.829 to move 0.038s clear of De Palo.

Teams’ champions Campos Racing took to the track in the final 30 minutes with all three drivers on fresh medium tyres.

Having missed the start of last season due to a back injury, Red Bull backed Rivera went quickest with a 1.31.217 while new teammate Mattia Colnaghi slotted into second with a 1.31.518.

With 15 minutes left the only improvement came from Enzo Deligny as the Van Amersfoort driver split the two Campos cars with a 1.31.405, the Frenchman 0.188s down on Rivera.

That bought to an end the opening session with Rivera leading Deligny and Colnaghi while behind them Alessandro Giusti (Rodin) and Alexander Abkhazava (DAMS) completed the top five.

Afternoon

Driver’s were quick to take to the track after the lunch break, Rivera picking up where he left off to go top with a 1.31.784, while teammate Colnaghi tucked in behind.

The Mexican was quickly beaten though by Trident’s Niccolò Maccagnani who set a 1.31.632 to move 0.152s clear at the top.

Rashid Al Dhaheri moved into fourth ahead of Taito Kato as teams shifted their focus to long runs.

Costa continued his impressive pace behind his DAMS as the Brazilian moved into third with 45 minutes remaining of the session.

As the session ticked into the final minutes, Nakamura-Berta found time in his Trident to shoot to the top of the timesheets with a 1.31.169.

Teammate Maccagnani followed, setting a 1.31.213 to make it a Trident 1-2 with just a handful of minutes left to go.

Colnaghi split the pair in the dying seconds, just 0.002s shy of Nakamura-Berta while Rivera rounded out the top three, 0.011s behind the British driver.

Any chance of further improvements disappeared when Abkhazava stopped on track bringing an end to the opening day of testing.

The DAMS driver would later have all his lap times from the afternoon session deleted after DAMS failed to supply a sufficient amount of fuel while Egozi also had his lap times deleted after his AIX was found to be underweight.

Giusti rounded out the top five ahead of Taito Kato (ART), De Palo, Sebastian Wheldon (Trident), and Emmanuele Olivieri (ART).

Morning session results

Afternoon session results