Leonardo Pulcini fastest in dry/wet/dry Day 1 test

Leonardo Pulcini
Leonardo Pulcini

Leonardo Pulcini has set the fastest laptime of Day 1 of the second FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing today at Barcelona, Spain. The Italian driver from Hitech Grand Prix clocked in a time of a 1:33.007 in the morning session to top the day overall ahead of Liam Lawson and Robert Shwartzman.

The session opened in fresh temperatures. It was Logan Sargeant who hit the track first ahead of the rest of the pack whilst Raoul Hyman set the early pace at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

In the opening hour, Felipe Drugovich went quickest ahead of Lawson before Andreas Estner brought out a first Red Flag after he clipped the wall at Turn 8. At the re-start, Shwartzman claimed the top spot, but Pulcini found some extra pace to better the Russian’s time by four tenths.

In the final hour, Shwartzman went quickest once more, but Lawson improved on the PREMA racer’s time by one thousandths to sit pretty at the top with thirty minutes left on the clock.

In the dying stages, Pulcini put his head down to lap the track in a 1:33.007 to lead Lawson and Shwartzman at the checkered flag. Jake Hughes, Alexander Peroni, Marcus Armstrong, Yifei Ye, David Beckmann, Juri Vips and Jehan Daruvala completed the top ten.

Half an hour before the afternoon session started, the rain fell heavily above the track. It subsided as the pitlane went green. Lawson was the first driver to dive onto the wet circuit and set the early pace ahead of Richard Verschoor.

Felipe Drugovich
Felipe Drugovich

The proceedings were halted twice in the opening hour: first, it was Niko Kari who stopped at Turn 6, and then it was Artem Petrov who ran wide and stopped in the gravel bed at Turn 3. The Jenzer driver brought out a third red flag in the early stages of the second hour after he span and stopped at Turn 11.

At the re-start Lawson improved further, but Shwartzman dipped under 1m49s to go quickest. A fourth red flag interrupted the running after Ye stopped at Turn 22. In the final half hour, Teppei Natori went off track at Turn 4 thus halting the proceedings again.

As the track dried even further, most drivers switched to slick tires and lapped the circuit in the 1m34s. At the checkered flag, Drugovich claimed the top spot in a 1:33.284 to edge Max Fewtrell whilst Beckmann finished third ahead of Sargeant, Peroni, Christian Lundgaard, Lawson, Sebastian Fernandez, Shwartzman and Armstrong completed the top 10.

Day 2 will start tomorrow at 9am local time.

FIA Formula 3 Barcelona Test – Day 1 Morning Session

Pos

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Leonardo Pulcini

Hitech Grand Prix

1:33.007

48

2

Liam Lawson

MP Motorsport

1:33.188

37

3

Robert Shwartzman

PREMA Racing

1:33.189

33

4

Jake Hughes

HWA RACELAB

1:33.199

41

5

Alexander Peroni

Campos Racing

1:33.373

29

6

Marcus Armstrong

PREMA Racing

1:33.417

36

7

Ye Yifei

Hitech Grand Prix

1:33.504

47

8

David Beckmann

ART Grand Prix

1:33.523

41

9

Juri Vips

Hitech Grand Prix

1:33.588

41

10

Jehan Daruvala

PREMA Racing

1:33.594

38

11

Sebastian Fernandez

Campos Racing

1:33.686

37

12

Max Fewtrell

ART Grand Prix

1:33.689

39

13

Richard Verschoor

MP Motorsport

1:33.727

36

14

Pedro Piquet

Trident

1:33.744

31

15

Simo Laaksonen

MP Motorsport

1:33.755

34

16

Lirim Zendeli

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:33.783

42

17

Bent Viscaal

HWA RACELAB

1:33.870

37

18

Christian Lundgaard

ART Grand Prix

1:33.948

38

19

Felipe Drugovich

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:33.971

24

20

Raoul Hyman

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:34.009

40

21

Yuki Tsunoda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:34.168

35

22

Niko Kari

Trident

1:34.179

30

23

Teppei Natori

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:34.234

25

24

Devlin DeFrancesco

Trident

1:34.334

30

25

Logan Sargeant

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:34.362

24

26

Fabio Scherer

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:34.733

37

27

Andreas Estner

Jenzer Motorsport

1:34.809

9

28

Keyvan Andres

HWA RACELAB

1:34.851

37

29

Artem Petrov

Jenzer Motorsport

1:35.414

36

30

Alessio Deledda

Campos Racing

1:35.705

29


FIA Formula 3 Barcelona Test – Day 1 Afternoon Session

Pos

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Felipe Drugovich

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:33.284

44

2

Max Fewtrell

ART Grand Prix

1:33.291

35

3

David Beckmann

ART Grand Prix

1:33.502

36

4

Logan Sargeant

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:33.703

44

5

Alexander Peroni

Campos Racing

1:33.990

29

6

Christian Lundgaard

ART Grand Prix

1:34.036

38

7

Liam Lawson

MP Motorsport

1:34.121

43

8

Sebastian Fernandez

Campos Racing

1:34.255

38

9

Robert Shwartzman

PREMA Racing

1:34.301

32

10

Marcus Armstrong

PREMA Racing

1:34.362

28

11

Pedro Piquet

Trident

1:34.450

36

12

Raoul Hyman

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:34.478

42

13

Simo Laaksonen

MP Motorsport

1:34.528

47

14

Jehan Daruvala

PREMA Racing

1:34.607

29

15

Richard Verschoor

MP Motorsport

1:34.656

38

16

Devlin DeFrancesco

Trident

1:34.739

37

17

Fabio Scherer

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:34.871

31

18

Jake Hughes

HWA RACELAB

1:34.906

19

19

Niko Kari

Trident

1:34.912

30

20

Bent Viscaal

HWA RACELAB

1:34.955

38

21

Andreas Estner

Jenzer Motorsport

1:34.997

26

22

Artem Petrov

Jenzer Motorsport

1:36.020

26

23

Alessio Deledda

Campos Racing

1:36.039

33

24

Keyvan Andres

HWA RACELAB

1:36.929

38

25

Yuki Tsunoda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:37.362

35

26

Ye Yifei

Hitech Grand Prix

1:41.226

32

27

Juri Vips

Hitech Grand Prix

1:44.656

39

28

Lirim Zendeli

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:44.675

14

29

Leonardo Pulcini

Hitech Grand Prix

1:45.296

39

30

Teppei Natori

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:47.791

31