Formula 3 Hot News

Stanek fastest in F3 Free Practice, ahead of Peroni

Posted by AR1 staff

 

FIA Formula 3’s youngest driver, Roman Stanek, topped his first ever session in the Championship by going fastest in Free Practice at Barcelona ahead of Campos’ Alex Peroni, and PREMA’s Logan Sargeant. The Charouz Racing System driver set his time of 1:33.737 just before a red flag ended the session after Alessio Deledda went off track.

Most of the grid opted not to get out onto the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya straight away, with only Campos and Charouz’s drivers getting a flying lap on the board in the opening five minutes. It was a fairly steady one at that, with Stanek the first racer to top the leader board, testing the track conditions and warming up his tires with a 1m 37s.

Leonardo Pulcini headed out for the first time in 2020 with Carlin Buzz Racing, and instantly leapt to first place by dropping the time down to 1:35.175. His teammate, Clément Novalak, went one better on his maiden flying lap, dropping the time by two tenths of a second.

The rest of the field began to head out for their first runs of the weekend, with Théo Pourchaire, Jake Hughes and Sargeant all exchanging the fastest time between them. All three momentarily held on to it, but Sargeant appeared to be the most in control.

The new Championship leader was then joined at the top by his title rival and teammate Oscar Piastri, who dived into second place ahead of Hughes. They were then separated by Peroni as the cars headed back into the pits for a freshen up. When they returned, the Campos racer went one better, going the quickest by just 0.004s.

Stanek managed to dash into first place, before Deledda skidded off the circuit and came to a halt in the gravel trap, which brought out a red flag. With just three minutes to go, the session was ended prematurely.

That meant that Stanek held on to first place, one tenth of a second ahead of Peroni and Sargeant. Igor Fraga sat fourth, with Piastri fifth, followed by Hughes, Pourchaire, David Beckmann, Liam Lawson, and Frederik Vesti.

Having topped a session for the first time in F3, Stanek will look to take the confidence gained into Qualifying at 2pm local time.

Practice Results

POS No. Driver Team LAPS GAP INT.
1 23 R. Stanek Charouz Racing System 15 0.000 0.000
2 29 A. Peroni Campos Racing 13 0.186 0.186
3 3 L. Sargeant PREMA Racing 14 0.190 0.004
4 24 I. Fraga Charouz Racing System 16 0.266 0.076
5 1 O. Piastri PREMA Racing 13 0.453 0.187
6 15 J. Hughes HWA RACELAB 11 0.498 0.045
7 7 T. Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 12 0.514 0.016
8 11 D. Beckmann Trident 10 0.589 0.075
9 5 L. Lawson Hitech Grand Prix 14 0.600 0.011
10 2 F. Vesti PREMA Racing 14 0.711 0.111
11 6 D. Hauger Hitech Grand Prix 18 0.714 0.003
12 26 C. Novalak Carlin Racing 10 0.736 0.022
13 16 J. Doohan HWA RACELAB 11 0.779 0.043
14 10 L. Zendeli Trident 9 0.809 0.030
15 9 S. Fernández ART Grand Prix 12 0.865 0.056
16 22 M. Nannini Jenzer Motorsport 13 0.892 0.027
17 4 M. Fewtrell Hitech Grand Prix 14 0.895 0.003
18 20 C. Williams Jenzer Motorsport 13 0.984 0.089
19 21 F. Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport 13 1.005 0.021
20 19 L. Dunner MP Motorsport 12 1.045 0.040
21 17 R. Verschoor MP Motorsport 10 1.089 0.044
22 12 O. Caldwell Trident 12 1.136 0.047
23 14 E. Fittipaldi HWA RACELAB 11 1.403 0.267
24 8 A. Smolyar ART Grand Prix 12 1.422 0.019
25 27 L. Pulcini Carlin Racing 12 1.439 0.017
26 18 B. Viscaal MP Motorsport 11 1.598 0.159
27 28 C. Das Carlin Buzz Racing 12 1.679 0.081
28 30 A. Deledda Campos Racing 13 1.793 0.114
29 31 S. Floersch Campos Racing 14 2.068 0.275
30 25 D. Schumacher Charouz Racing System 9 2.494 0.426