Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
FIA Formula 3 title rivals Ugo Ugochukwu and Freddie Slater set the fastest times as drivers got their first taste of the new Madring circuit, which will stage the championship finale on 11-13 September.
The pair shared the honours over the two-day test, with each emerging on top in two of the four sessions. With 19 red flags across the four sessions, drivers were clearly struggling with the slippery surface and solid walls.
Trident’s Slater finished at the top of the time sheets at the end of the first day, the British driver thriving as he set the pace with a 1m50.343s in the afternoon session to beat Ugochukwu’s best time from the morning. However, the American reversed the order on day two, setting the fastest overall time of the test in the morning session with a lap in 1m49.034s.
Drivers were quick to take to the track early on to get to grips with the new circuit, Yevan David leading the field early on for AIX Racing before the session was halted for the first time as Rodin Motorsport’s Christian Ho found himself in the barriers at Turn 5.
With the track cleared and just an hour remaining of the session, Jin Nakamura went fastest for Hitech with a 1m52.605s, before bettering his time with a 1m52.176s.
As the morning session reached its conclusion, Van Amersfoort’s Bruno Del Pino moved to the front with a time of 1m51.958s, 0.103s ahead of his team-mate Enzo Deligny, before his time was bettered by Ugochukwu who posted a 1m51.901s before the session was halted once more, this time for Del Pino who found himself stationary at Turn 12.
Cooler conditions greeted drivers for the first afternoon session, which was briefly halted as AIX’s Fernando Barrichello found the wall at Turn 17. After finishing fifth in the morning session, Audi F1 junior Slater continued his strong pace after the lunch break, going fastest with just over 30 minutes remaining with a 1m51.638s.
Turn 17 claimed another victim shortly after as Nakamura found the wall, bringing the session to a halt once more.
When running resumed, ART Grand Prix’s duo of Maciej Gladysz and Taito Kato moved to the front, with Gladysz the quicker of the two. Sadly for the Pole, his day ended prematurely as he became the next driver to end up in the barriers, this time at the Turn 5 chicane.
Kato continued where he left off, toppling Slater before the British driver returned to the front with a 1m50.343s to end the session fastest ahead of Kato who saw off an improvement from Campos Racing’s Theophile Nael late on.
Not all was plain sailing for Slater as he clipped the wall at Turn 10 with 20 minutes remaining, bringing out the red flags once more. Though the session resumed with seven minutes still on the clock, the order at the front was unchanged.
The drivers were again keen to get on track at the start of the second day but an early spin for Barrichello at Turn 8 bought out a red flag although the Brazilian managed to get his car back to the pit lane.
When running did continue, Campos teammates Nael and Ernesto Rivera swapped positions at the top with the Mexican setting a time of 1m50.108s to top the time sheets early on. Kato picked up on his impressive pace from the previous day to dislodge Rivera at the top of the times with a 1m49.673s lap before David went fastest by 0.112s, before causing another stoppage when he was forced to stop on the track.
When the session resumed with 45 minutes remaining, Ugochukwu went half-a-second clear with what would be the absolute fastest time of the test. VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi managed to close to within 0.193s before he also fell victim to the Turn 11 barriers.
The teams focused on race runs rather than outright pace in the closing afternoon session, although this did not result in a let up in the number of red flags. Ugochukwu set the early pace but Slater had the final word as he managed to squeeze a lap of 1m49.685s between the interruptions to top the afternoon times.