Photo: Japanese Formula 3
Former Renault Formula 1 junior Sacha Fenestraz topped the second pre-season Japanese Formula 3 test at Fuji.
The European Formula 3 race-winner was fastest on both of the Thursday test sessions with the B-MAX Racing by Motopark team, with 2018 championship runner-up Ritomo Miyata’s Wednesday benchmark enough to put his TOM’S car in second in the combined classification.
As per the previous test at Suzuka, Okayama Team’s Charles Milesi was third fastest and a sizeable gap ahead of the rest of the field.
Enaam Ahmed led the best of the rest, making his first appearance with B-MAX/Motopark after losing his ThreeBond Racing seat, with just over two tenths of a second covering the Briton, Kazuto Kotaka (TOM’S), Shunsuke Kohno (RS Fine) and Ahmed’s ThreeBond replacement Hiroki Otsu.
The usual Japanese F3 and Formula 4 competitors filled most of the rest of the 15-car field, although Hanashima Racing’s Riki Okusa failed to set a lap due to car issues, with the exemption being B-MAX/Motopark’s Ameya Vaidyanathan who is expected to sign for the team.
Test results
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sacha Fenestraz | B-MAX with Motopark | 1m33.045s |
| 2 | Ritomo Miyata | TOM’S | +0.304s |
| 3 | Charles Milesi | Okayama Team | +0.538s |
| 4 | Enaam Ahmed | B-MAX with Motopark | +0.891s |
| 5 | Kazuto Kotaka | TOM’S | +0.992s |
| 6 | Shunsuke Kohno | RS Fine | +1.032s |
| 7 | Hiroki Otsu | ThreeBond Racing | +1.098s |
| 8 | Yoshiaki Katayama | Okayama Team | +1.135s |
| 9 | Toshiki Oyu | Toda Racing | +1.333s |
| 10 | Ai Miura | ThreeBond Racing | +1.478s |
| 11 | Tairoku Yamaguchi | Tairoku Racing | +1.632s |
| 12 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | B-MAX with Motopark | +1.655s |
| 13 | ‘Dragon’ | B-MAX with Motopark | +2.004s |
| 14 | Katsuaki Kubota | Hanashima Racing | +3.329s |
| 15 | Riki Okusa | Hanashima Racing | no time |