Trident’s Bortoleto returns to the top in final F3 test session at Barcelona

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto topped the times on the second afternoon of FIA Formula 3’s in-season Barcelona test.

The championship leader was also fastest in the morning and afternoon of the first day of test action, before Trident switched focus to long runs on Friday morning. The team then returned to doing qualifying simulations in the afternoon, while many rivals sought to check out their long-run pace in the warmer final session.

Jenzer Motorsport’s Taylor Barnard carried over his strong morning pace into the afternoon, setting the benchmark laptime early on.

Bortoleto soon beat that, setting a 1m28.471s, and he improved to 1m28.277s in the first half of the three-hour session. It was a strong enough effort to keep him in first place until the chequered flag came out, and with Barnard still in second place too.

In fact, the top five would go unchanged through the final 75 minutes with Bortoleto’s team-mates Oliver Goethe and Leonardo Fornaroli in third and fourth, and then Jenzer’s Alex Garcia in fifth.

Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti went into the gravel at turn 13 and brought out red flags at one point, and once he was recovered and able to return to track he improved his pace to end the session in seventh, 1.849 seconds off the pace.

One spot ahead of him was MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto, who had set a lap 1.743s slower than Bortoleto’s to go sixth fastest prior to Marti bringing out the red flags.

Only three drivers took the chequered flag: Hitech GP’s Gabriele Mini and Prema duo Paul Aron and Zak O’Sullivan. It was O’Sullivan who clocked up the most laps of anyone in the afternoon, setting 73 in total but lapping 3.820s off the pace in 19th place.

Afternoon session results