Stenshorne lowers the pace on first afternoon of F3 test at Jerez

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne lowered the pace on the first afternoon of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing at Jerez.

Campos Racing’s Mari Boya was fastest in the morning session, setting a 1m31.281s. It took a long time before a representative pace was reached then, whereas in the afternoon that benchmark was beaten almost straight away as 27 drivers left the pitlane at once.

Rodin Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski was quickest after the first flying laps with a 1m31.788s, leading Stenshorne, Rodin’s Freddie Slater and ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen who all lapped sub-1m32s.

Sixth place was traded between several drivers a few minutes later, but the top five was set and improvements from drivers only brought them into the bottom of the top 10 until Jenzer Motorsport’s Matias Zagazeta set a 1m31.955s to go fifth after 14 minutes.

Christian Ho moved into fourth with a 1m31.853s, before the Jenzer driver joined much of the rest of the field in returning to the pits. At this point only AIX Racing’s Jose Garfias and Javier Sagrera did not have laptimes to their names.

Trident’s Noah Stromsted managed to beat Bilinski by 0.041 seconds when he set a 1m31.700s before pitting, as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Theophile Nael slotted into sixth.

Sagrera eventually headed out on slick tyres and he was in sixth place half an hour in, after Nael had gone quickest with a 1m31.614s.

Little happened in the next half-hour, although Ho did go fastest by 0.383s. He then improved further to 1m31.149s, a benchmark not beaten until the second half of the three-hour session when ART GP’s Laurens van Hoepen set a 1m31.032s and Stenshorne was just 0.008s slower.

The track remained mostly empty, although Hitech’s Joshua Dufek and Sagrera did go third and fourth with 1m31.5s laps, then Stromsted squeezed between them with a 1m31.273s during the second hour.

VAR’s John Bennett opted to make use of clear air in the final hour, and with 50 minutes to go went fastest by 0.126s with the test’s first sub-1m31s lap.

Before almost the entire field headed back out with 14-and-a-half minutes remaining, Campos had sent its drivers out together. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Boya had gone fifth and sixth fastest, and Jesse Carrasquedo had slotted into 11th place.

Bennett was still on top with eight minutes to go, although Boya had got close to him a minute prior with a 1m30.939s lap. Soon a flurry of laptimes came in, with Stenshorne setting a new 1m30.761s benchmark as Carrasquedo improved to third, Dufek went sixth fastest and Bilinski moved up to ninth.

Boya found another space on track to not have his next lap compromised and he set another personal best, a 1m30.887s that put him 0.029s ahead of Bennett but still 0.116s behind Stenshorne.

The track became so busy that it improved impossible for most to improve, and almost everyone had returned to the pits when the chequered flag waved.

Afternoon session results