Ferrari F1 junior Armstrong tops FIA F3’s first Hungary test day

Marcus Armstrong
Marcus Armstrong

Marcus Armstrong was quickest on Day 1 of the final FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing today in Budapest, Hungary. The PREMA Racing driver clocked in a time of 1:31.411 to finish ahead of teammate Jehan Daruvala and Leonardo Pulcini of Hitech Grand Prix.

As soon as the pitlane opened for the morning session, all thirty cars fed onto the track for their customary installation laps. MP Motorsport’s Liam Lawson set the initial pace, but he was quickly toppled by Fabio Scherer. However, Pulcini who had lit up the second round of testing in Barcelona last week was back on top of the times, firing home 1:32.360 inside the first half an hour.

The morning’s first red flag came at 9.50am when Sebastian Fernandez stopped at Turn 6, but the session swiftly resumed with temperatures hitting the 13 degrees mark, on a dry morning at the Hungaroring.

Pulcini improved on his best time to lap the track in a 1:32.274 ahead of teammate Jüri Vips on 1:32.318. But Trident’s Niko Kari leaped in front of the Hitech Grand Prix pair with a best laptime of 1:31.799.

There was a second red flag just over an hour later after Alex Peroni had lost control on the curb of Turn 11 and thumped into the barrier. Robert Shwartzman nabbed the top spot when the running restarted, with a time of 1:31.733. Having dropped out of the top 10, Pulcini clocked in a laptime of 1:31.564 to beat Shwartzman’s best.

The saying goes that things come in three’s and there was a third red flag as the session began to draw to a close after Yuki Tsunoda stopped at Turn 12. When the green flag returned, there were still eight minutes to get back on track, but no one could beat Pulcini. Shwartzman classified second ahead of Kari, Vips, Raoul Hyman, Artem Petrov, Richard Verschoor, Fernandez, Armstrong and Jake Hughes.

The drivers picked up where they left off when they returned for the afternoon tests, once again hitting times of around 1m33s. Tsunoda lapped quickest at 1:32.427 on the half hour mark, closely followed by MP Motorsport pair Richard Verschoor and Simo Laaksonen who also broke the 1m33s barrier

Leonardo Pulcini
Leonardo Pulcini

The session was briefly interrupted by a red flag when Jake Hughes stopped at the pit exit. There was little change in the order when testing resumed and the front three remained unchanged for the next hour, with teams working on their lap count.

Laaksonen and Verschoor temporarily switched places before the latter set the fastest laptime, with 1:32.303 – still some way off Pulcini’s morning pace of 1:31.564.

The order was given a shake-up by Hitech Grand Prix with just over half an hour remaining, as their duo of Pulcini and Ye Yifei leapt to 2nd and 3rd place. Yifei followed this up with an even better time in the subsequent lap to hike himself to the top of the leader board, with a time of 1:32.162. A red flag followed the reshuffle, as Shwartzmann stopped on track between Turns 11 and 12.

Very light drops of rain were spotted, but that didn’t deter Armstrong, who set his best time of the day in a lap that saw him jump to second on the standings. The PREMA driver followed this up with another blistering drive to dip under 1m32s for the first time that afternoon

Armstrong was momentarily dislodged from first by Daruvala, but refused to be bettered by his PREMA teammate and beat the Indian’s time almost instantaneously, on his 50th lap.

The New Zealander ace remained on top at the checkered flag, followed by Daruvala in second and Pulcini in third. Lawson, Yifei, Fernandez, Logan Sargeant, David Beckmann, Tsunoda and Verschoor completed the top ten.

Day 2 will start tomorrow at 9am local time.

FIA Formula 3 Budapest Test – Day 1 Morning Session

POS

DRIVER

TEAM

TIME

LAPS

1

Leonardo Pulcini

Hitech Grand Prix

1:31.564

41

2

Robert Shwartzman

PREMA Racing

1:31.733

33

3

Niko Kari

Trident

1:31.799

29

4

Jüri Vips

Hitech Grand Prix

1:31.990

46

5

Raoul Hyman

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:32.132

46

6

Artem Petrov

Jenzer Motorsport

1:32.150

33

7

Richard Verschoor

MP Motorsport

1:32.157

31

8

Sebastian Fernandez

Campos Racing

1:32.207

19

9

Marcus Armstrong

PREMA Racing

1:32.241

34

10

Jake Hughes

HWA RACELAB

1:32.245

40

11

Jehan Daruvala

PREMA Racing

1:32.260

33

12

Pedro Piquet

Trident

1:32.287

33

13

David Beckmann

ART Grand Prix

1:32.294

35

14

Logan Sargeant

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:32.325

35

15

Felipe Drugovich

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:32.346

36

16

Yuki Tsunoda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:32.354

39

17

Fabio Scherer

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:32.471

52

18

Alexander Peroni

Campos Racing

1:32.491

20

19

Christian Lundgaard

ART Grand Prix

1:32.531

38

20

Liam Lawson

MP Motorsport

1:32.643

26

21

Devlin DeFrancesco

Trident

1:32.654

36

22

Lirim Zendeli

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:32.661

52

23

Simo Laaksonen

MP Motorsport

1:32.711

27

24

Ye Yifei

Hitech Grand Prix

1:32.794

46

25

Max Fewtrell

ART Grand Prix

1:32.932

37

26

Bent Viscaal

HWA RACELAB

1:33.060

39

27

Andreas Estner

Jenzer Motorsport

1:33.449

39

28

Teppei Natori

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:33.606

36

29

Keyvan Andres

HWA RACELAB

1:33.852

41

30

Alessio Deledda

Campos Racing

1:33.918

35


FIA Formula 3 Barcelona Test – Day 1 Afternoon Session

POS

DRIVER

TEAM

TIME

LAPS

1

Marcus Armstrong

PREMA Racing

1:31.41

52

2

Jehan Daruvala

PREMA Racing

1:31.857

49

3

Leonardo Pulcini

Hitech Grand Prix

1:32.054

44

4

Liam Lawson

MP Motorsport

1:32.069

36

5

Ye Yifei

Hitech Grand Prix

1:32.162

43

6

Sebastian Fernandez

Campos Racing

1:32.204

39

7

Logan Sargeant

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:32.246

39

8

David Beckmann

ART Grand Prix

1:32.268

48

9

Yuki Tsunoda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:32.275

47

10

Richard Verschoor

MP Motorsport

1:32.301

33

11

Max Fewtrell

ART Grand Prix

1:32.318

49

12

Simo Laaksonen

MP Motorsport

1:32.360

35

13

Jake Hughes

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:32.365

35

14

Artem Petrov

Jenzer Motorsport

1:32.436

48

15

Christian Lundgaard

ART Grand Prix

1:32.464

49

16

Jüri Vips

Hitech Grand Prix

1:32.685

38

17

Fabio Scherer

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:32.700

36

18

Niko Kari

Trident

1:32.700

38

19

Pedro Piquet

Trident

1:32.874

23

20

Lirim Zendeli

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:32.883

42

21

Devlin DeFrancesco

Trident

1:32.975

45

22

Teppei Natori

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:33.250

42

23

Alexander Peroni

Campos Racing

1:33.504

9

24

Keyvan Andres

HWA RACELAB

1:33.569

47

25

Bent Viscaal

HWA RACELAB

1:33.626

50

26

Andreas Estner

Jenzer Motorsport

1:33.648

42

27

Alessio Deledda

Campos Racing

1:34.264

41

28

Raoul Hyman

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:34.547

44

29

Robert Shwartzman

PREMA Racing

1:34.585

40

30

Felipe Drugovich

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:34.741

20