Home Formula 3FIA F3 Championship Van Amersfoort Racing goes straight to the top on F3 test comeback

Van Amersfoort Racing goes straight to the top on F3 test comeback

by Ida Wood

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Van Amersfoort Racing started its return to Formula 3 in perfect style as Jack Doohan went fastest for it in the first post-season FIA F3 test session.

The Dutch outfit has bought HWA Racelab’s assets and will compete in the FIA F3 Championship for the first time next year, having last featured in the category in the European championship in 2018.

Doohan, 2021 F3 title runner-up, got to the top in the three-hour Monday morning session at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit in the final minutes, with no representative laptimes actually set until the last half-hour of running.

MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet and Franco Colapinto had consistently been lowering the pace during the first hour, then Victor Martins – who has moved from MP to ART Grand Prix for testing – entered the 1m34s at the start of hour two.

That was almost 11 seconds off the eventual pace, and it didn’t take long for Colapinto to better him and fellow Formula Regional European Championship graduate Zane Maloney to be first into the 1m33s for Trident.

He was only briefly ahead before Prema’s Red Bull junior Jak Crawford went faster, but Maloney did respond before ART GP’s FREC champion Gregoire Saucy dropped half a second on everyone.

Jonny Edgar, who has taken over fellow Red Bull junior Doohan’s Trident seat, set a 1m30.390s at the halfway point before everyone returned to the pits for almost an hour.

With 30 minutes to go, Campos Racing’s FREC graduate David Vidales chopped 4.473s off the pace to finally set a ‘true’ flying lap, but Collet and Hitech GP’s Kaylen Frederick knocking big chunks out of that later.

Doohan came to the fore towards the very end with a 1m23.349s, 2.5s down on laptimes set at Valencia in 2019, and was a tenth ahead of Maloney before his fastest lap was deleted.

Isack Hadjar, one of several drivers travelling straight from FREC at Monza, missed the session.

Test results

Pos Name Team Time Gap Laps
1 Jack Doohan Van Amersfoort Racing 1m23.349s 29
2 Victor Martins ART Grand Prix 1m23.541s +0.192s 38
3 Kaylen Frederick Hitech GP 1m23.546s +0.197s 30
4 Roman Stanek Trident 1m23.580s +0.231s 31
5 Jak Crawford Prema 1m23.668s +0.319s 38
6 Oliver Rasmussen Charouz Racing System 1m23.747s +0.398s 19
7 Arthur Leclerc Prema 1m23.756s +0.416s 38
8 Caio Collet MP Motorsport 1m23.838s +0.489s 42
9 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport 1m23.847s +0.498s 47
10 Zane Maloney Trident 1m23.863s +0.514s 33
11 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 1m23.883s +0.534s 38
12 Filip Ugran Jenzer Motorsport 1m23.886s +0.537s 31
13 Lorenzo Colombo Charouz Racing System 1m23.961s +0.612s 21
14 Jonny Edgar Trident 1m23.964s +0.615s 30
15 David Vidales Campos Racing 1m24.088s +0.739s 32
16 Juan Manuel Correa ART Grand Prix 1m24.124s +0.775s 37
17 Ollie Bearman Prema 1m24.205s +0.856s 37
18 Pepe Marti Campos Racing 1m24.461s +1.112s 44
19 Rafael Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 1m24.481s +1.132s 32
20 Johnathan Hoggard Hitech GP 1m24.483s +1.134s 37
21 Tijmen van der Helm MP Motorsport 1m24.504s +1.155s 39
22 Roberto Faria Jenzer Motorsport 1m24.606s +1.257s 42
23 Brad Benavides Carlin 1m24.876s +1.527s 34
24 Ido Cohen Carlin 1m24.892s +1.543s 42
25 Zak O’Sullivan Carlin 1m24.998s +1.649s 34
26 Hunter Yeany Campos Racing 1m25.091s +1.742s 40
27 Reece Ushijima Van Amersfoort Racing 1m25.114s +1.765s 28
28 Laszlo Toth Charouz Racing System 1m25.805s +2.456s 20
29 Nazim Azman Jenzer Motorsport 1m26.077s +2.728s 42
30 Isack Hadjar Hitech GP no time 0