Voisin fastest by 1.8s in final pre-season FIA F3 test session

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin had a huge gap to the rest of the field in the final pre-season FIA Formula 3 test session at Barcelona.

The start of the three-hour session was delayed by 30 minutes, and heading out at first were Campos Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Trident’s Charlie Wurz.

Inthraphuvasak laid down an early 1m45.280s benchmark, with Voisin his closest rival after 15 minutes. At that point only five drivers had set laptimes.

Voisin and team-mate Roman Bilinski soon occupied the top place, with the former lowering the pace to 1m44.533s, and after 22 minutes there was 0.29 seconds between them.

Trident’s Noah Stromsted then reduced Voisin’s gap at the top to 0.104s, and after 28 minutes there 13 drivers who had set laps.

At the end of the first half-hour, Stromsted went fastest by 0.355s, and a shortly after Hitech GP’s Joshua Dufek set a 1m45.570s to rise to fifth place.

Inthraphuvasak improved 37 mintes in, but remained in fourth, ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Theophile Nael, Campos’s Nikola Tsolov and VAR’s Ivan Domingues.

A 1m44.932s lifted Domingues to fourth place seven minutes later, then Inthraphuvasak found more pace to rise one spot, lapping the track in 1m44.802s.

Red flags waved as 50 minutes passed, as Nael suffered mechanical problems with the new Dallara F3 2025 car. He slowed down on the pit straight, stopped, got going again but then stopped terminally at the end of the straight.

It was a five-minute interripition, and at the end of the first hour Stromsted’s 1m44.178s lap remained the benchmark time.

Bilinski went third fastest a few minutes later, improving to 1m44.791s, and ART Grand Prix’s Laurens va Hoepen set a 1m45.077s in sixth.

Most drivers were in the pits 72 minutes in, and the top nine placed were unchanged at the session’s halfway mark. DAMS’ Matias Zagazeta was the only driver without a flying lap to his name, Wurz was in the pits with issues and offs for Rodin’s Louis Sharp and DAMS’ Christian Ho led to another red flag stoppage.

Domingues headed back out when action resumed, but was joined by few others. The track remained damp from rain during the lunch break, so slick tyres were not in use.

His team-mate Santiago Ramos set a 1m45.611s to rise to 10th just before red flags waved with 70 minutes to go of testing as DAMS’ Niko Lacorte went off.

Tsolov began the final hour by going third fastest, and with 40 minutes to go Sharp lowered the pace to 1m43.885s. At the same time, Trident’s Rafael Camara set a 1m44.483s to sit third. He got within 0.026s of Sharp with 28 minutes to go, and two minutes later red flags waved as Prema’s Noel Leon became the latest driver to be caught out at turn five.

There were 17 minutes to go when testing restarted, and everyone was looking to go faster. Nael jumped to fourth, and Stromsted set a new 1m43.272s benchmark with 14 minutes remaining. He led Voisin by 0.534s.

When Camara crossed the line he was 0.662s quicker than Stromsted, and Sharp got within 0.151s of him with 10 minutes to go as Bilinski set a 1m43.786s in fourth.

Nael broke into the 1m43s with eight minutes left on the clock, and 90s later Bilinski got within 0.065s of Camara. The response from Nael was a new benchmark, a 1m42.083s that put him half a second clear. Voisin bettered that with two-and-a-half minutes to go, posting a 1m41.796s. Bilinski again improved alongside him, setting a 1m42.282s to place third ahead of MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz.

It was Tramnitz who was on top next, a 1m40.887s putting him 0.567s ahead of Camara as Stromsted improved in fifth.

The track was at its driest, and therefore fastest, after the chequered flag and 14 drivers set personal bests. Voisinput in an unbeatable 1m39.031s, Campos’s Mari Boya was 2.538s slower than him but rose to fourth, Inthraphuvasak, Bilinski and Sharep all lapped sub-1m42s, and Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne completed the top 10th with a 1m42.287s. Four seconds covered the top half of the order.

Afternoon session results