Photo: Malcolm Griffiths / FIA F3
Hitech GP’s Leonardo Pulcini was fastest again in the second and final day of the FIA Formula 3 Championship’s pre-season test at Barcelona.
As per Tuesday’s running, the best times were set in the morning and there were numerous red flags and a brief rain shower in the afternoon.
Pulcini improved by 0.785 seconds on his day one benchmark with a 1m32.222s lap, putting him 0.147s clear of ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard.
Lundgaard was one of the few drivers to top the times in the morning, with former Formula Renault Eurocup rival Alex Peroni also spending some time in first place before he stopped at Turn 13 and red-flagged the session. He had slumped to fourth by lunchtime, with reigning Eurocup champion Max Fewtrell slotting in behind team-mate Lundgaard in third.
Jehan Daruvala was the strongest Prema driver in fifth, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Liam Lawson, Peroni’s Campos Racing team-mate Sebastian Fernandez, the third ART car of David Beckmann and Ferrari-backed Prema driver Robert Shwartzman.
In addition to Lawson’s strong times, MP was also 10th and 11th quickest courtesy of Richard Verschoor and Simo Laaksonen.
Having struggled up to that point, the Charouz Racing System-ran Sauber Junior Team came good in the afternoon session, going fastest with ADAC Formula 4 champion Lirim Zendeli.
The German had only been 14th fastest in the morning though, and?only HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes benefited from being near the front in the afternoon, going from 28th to 25th in the combined times.
Carlin had a difficult day, with none of its drivers making it into the top 20 in the morning session, and then one of its cars – that of Teppei Natori – failing to set a lap in the afternoon after earlier troubles.
Combined day two times
| Pos? | Driver | Team | Morning | Afternoon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonardo Pulcini | Hitech GP | 1:32.222 | 1:36.032 |
| 2 | Christian Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | 1:32.369 | 1:35.135 |
| 3 | Max Fewtrell | ART Grand Prix | 1:32.429 | 1:35.626 |
| 4 | Alex Peroni | Campos Racing | 1:32.460 | 1:34.662 |
| 5 | Jehan Daruvala | Prema | 1:32.507 | 1:35.940 |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | MP Motorsport | 1:32.621 | 1:35.893 |
| 7 | Sebastian Fernandez | Campos Racing | 1:32.627 | 1:34.297 |
| 8 | David Beckmann | ART Grand Prix | 1:32.642 | 1:36.001 |
| 9 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | 1:32.712 | 1:35.712 |
| 10 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1:32.722 | 1:35.235 |
| 11 | Simo Laaksonen | MP Motorsport | 1:32.881 | 1:35.457 |
| 12 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | 1:32.901 | 1:35.767 |
| 13 | Marcus Armstrong | Prema | 1:32.907 | 1:32.959 |
| 14 | Lirim Zendeli | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1:33.111 | 1:33.703 |
| 15 | Raoul Hyman | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1:33.226 | 1:35.096 |
| 16 | Yifei Ye | Hitech GP | 1:33.255 | 1:36.231 |
| 17 | Pedro Piquet | Trident | 1:33.286 | 1:33.827 |
| 18 | Bent Viscaal | HWA Racelab | 1:33.296 | 1:34.108 |
| 19 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | 1:33.319 | 1:34.114 |
| 20 | Felipe Drugovich | Carlin | 1:33.500 | 1:34.085 |
| 21 | Artem Petrov | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:33.523 | 1:34.650 |
| 22 | Niko Kari | Trident | 1:33.533 | 1:33.983 |
| 23 | Yuki Tsunoda | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:33.692 | 1:33.985 |
| 24 | Fabio Scherer | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1:33.722 | 1:34.558 |
| 25 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | 1:34.732 | 1:34.106 |
| 26 | Keyvan Andres | HWA Racelab | 1:34.211 | 1:34.756 |
| 27 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Trident | 1:34.229 | 1:34.707 |
| 28 | Andreas Estner | Jenzer Motorsport | 1:34.323 | 1:35.236 |
| 29 | Alessio Deledda | Campos Racing | 1:35.009 | 1:36.385 |
| 30 | Teppei Natori | Carlin | 1:36.712 | no time |