The TRIDENT driver set a 1:50.343 to finish the day with the fastest time overall, topping the afternoon segment. In the morning, it was title rival Ugo Ugochukwu in P1, logging a 1:51.901 for Campos Racing, as FIA Formula 3 got a first taste of action around the brand-new Madring circuit.
MORNING
Everyone was out onto track early for reconnaissance laps ahead of more extensive running later in the session. DAMS Lucas Oil had the Madring all to themselves, but after an hour of action, Yevan David led the field for AIX Racing. A Red Flag arrived midway through the morning segment after Christian Ho found the barriers at Turn 18. The Rodin Motorsport driver was out of his car and OK, and the session resumed with just over an hour to go.
Back to green flag conditions and Jin Nakamura put Hitech on top with a 1:52.605, before bettering his personal best effort with a 1:52.176. Championship leader Freddie Slater slotted into second for TRIDENT, just 0.029s down. Into the final hour of morning running and Bruno Del Pino then put Van Amersfoort Racing P1, the Spaniard setting a 1:51.958 to lead teammate Enzo Deligny with 40 minutes to go.
Ugochukwu then delivered his best time of the session with a 1:51.901 to top the timing screens for Campos, winding up fastest overall in the first segment of the day. Del Pino was second but brought out one final Red Flag for the morning, coming to a stop at Turn 12, and the session was not restarted with little time remaining. Deligny rounded out the top three ahead of Nakamura and Slater in fourth and fifth places respectively.
AFTERNOON
It was a busy start to the afternoon as everyone looked to make the most of the slightly cooler than expected conditions. An early Red Flag was waved after Fernando Barrichello found the barriers at Turn 17. He was OK and the AIX Racing car was cleared away, and the session resumed.
Slater was back up to P1 with a 1:51.638 with just over half an hour to run, before another Red Flag for an incident at Turn 17 came, this time Jin Nakamura of Hitech the driver to find the barriers. ART Grand Prix were looking strong as the session resumed, briefly going 1-2 with Maciej Gladysz leading teammate Taito Kato. The Pole’s afternoon was over though shortly afterwards, making contact with the barriers at the Turn 5-6 chicane.
With his car cleared away, running got back underway but there was another quickfire Red Flag after a spin and resumption led to a short halt to proceedings. With just over an hour to go, the session resumed and Kato was flying. He lowered the time to beat several times over, before Slater obliged.
The Briton set a 1:50.343 to take top spot from Theophile Nael, who improved on Kato’s time seconds earlier. Kato then set a better time to re-take P2 before the end of the day. Slater’s afternoon came to an early close however with just under 20 minutes to go. He clipped the wall at Turn 10, causing session-ending damage to his car, and he stopped on track. Running resumed with a final seven-minute burst of action, but there were no further improvements in the timings.
TOP15 Classification:
