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 |