Ugochukwu leads Campos 1-2 on second morning of FIA F3’s Jerez test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ugo Ugochukwu was quickest on the second morning of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing at Jerez, leading Campos Racing team-mate Ernesto Rivera by 0.197 seconds.

When the three-hour session began, drivers looked to lay down fast laps before switching focus to long runs.

Trident’s Freddie Slater led the way after an hour, a 1m31.782s putting him 0.3s ahead of team-mate Noah Stromsted.

In hour two however the laptimes actually became more representative of drivers’ absolute pace. The top five ended up being separated by half a second, with Ugochukwu setting a 1m30.012s on his ninth lap of 28 and during the session’s first half that would not be beaten. Slater improved to 1m30.315s to sit second.

He was demoted to third as the second half of the session began, as Rivera jumped up from 26th to Ugochukwu’s closest rival. None of the top three were then able to improve further.

Rodin Motorsport’s Christian Ho was 0.102s behind Slater in fourth with a lap set in the first hour, and Stromsted was fifth.

MP Motorsport’s day one pacesetter Alessandro Giusti continued his strong pace, going sixth fastest and pipping Prema’s James Wharton by 0.002s.

The team that got the most running in was ART Grand Prix, with its three drivers completing 127 laps between them. Taito Kato was the fastest of the trio in eighth, a position he took by setting a 1m30.586s before Prema’s Brando Badoer achieved the same. A second covered the top 25.

DAMS’ Gerrard Xie triggered the first red flag period with 35 minutes to go, then Hitech GP’s Jin Nakamura caused another four minutes from the end which left no time for a restart. There was little running done across the field in the final hour.

Additional reporting by Ida Wood

Morning session results