Tsolov quickest again in F3 testing ahead of team-mate Inthraphuvasak

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Nikola Tsolov was quickest again in the afternoon session on day two of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

Campos Racing was the first team on track, and Mari Boya set a 1m29.236s five minutes in that was bettered by both his team-mates.

Tsolov moved to the top with a 1m28.933s, and his advantage was reduced to 0.108 seconds by Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin after a quarter of an hour.

Tsolov was demoted to third 20 minutes in, as Rodin’s Roman Bilinski set a 1m28.581s and Campos’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak posted a 1m28.885s.

Third became fourth when Rodin’s Louis Sharp set a 1m28.874s a few minutes later, but Tsolov responded with a mighty 1m27.373s. Sharp found more pace, but stayed in third with a 1m28.82s set 27 minutes in. At that point there were 14 drivers who had completed flying laps, while 13 had not left the pits.

Those on track were improving. Campos’s Mari Boya set a 1m27.711s to be second fastest, and Trident’s Noah Stromsted and Charlie Wurz slotted into third and eighth.

Campos occupied the top three positions at the half-hour mark, as Inthraphuvasak got within 0.075s of Tsolov.

Theophile Nael headed out and went eighth fastest, but his Van Amersfoort Racing team-mates had their cars on trestles and Hitech GP’s line-up was also inactive.

Trident’s Rafael Camara set a 1m28.238s to go fifth fastest 36 minutes in, just ahead of DAMS’ Matias Zagazeta, and MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz rose to ninth by breaking the 1m29s barrier too.

The fastest lap of the three-hour session came after 43 minutes, as Tsolov made a small gain to 1m27.249s.

Wurz set a 1m28.646s in eighth place a few minutes later, then DAMS’ Christian Ho moved up to seventh with a 1m28.263s. Hitech’s drivers headed out at this point.

Before the end of hour one, MP’s Tramnitz, Bruno del Pino and Alessandro Giusti went fourth, sixth and 10th fastest, Tramnitz breaking into the 1m27s.

VAR’s Ivan Domingues finally headed out after 75 minutes, as Hitech’s trio started recording flying laps. They were in the midfield, but in the session’s second half Martinius Stenshorne set a 1m27.569s to climb to third and VAR’s Santiago Ramos got behind the wheel too.

Stenshorne’s team-mate Gerrard Xie moved up to sixth with a 1m28.014s, set 98 minutes in, and Joshua Dufek later went 13th fastest.

Hour two ended with a 1m28.079s from Camara netting him eighth. Ramos was the only active driver not long after that, but soon he pitted too.

With 35 minutes remaining, Tramnitz and del Pino sat in third and sixth after improving to 1m27.564s and 1m27.956s respectively, and Prema’s Noel Leon was marginally slower in seventh. Giusti then demoted his team-mate with a 1m27.876s.

ART Grand Prix’s drivers were outside of the top 20 until a fresh tyre run going into the final half-hour, with Laurens van Hoepen jumping from 23rd to fifth with a 1m27.697s.

All teams bar AIX Racing headed out for more flying laps with 17 minutes to go, but only a few drivers were on fresh tyres and nobody improved. The day ended with virtual safety car practice and red flags.

Afternoon session results