Dorian Boccolacci has claimed the day two bragging rights by heading both sessions of today’s GP3 Series test session at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, using the gloriously sunny but mild conditions to his advantage by claiming both top spots: this morning in a qualifying-style session with a time of 1:32.896, just 0.012s ahead of Nirei Fukuzumi and Jack Aitken, and this afternoon in a long run session with a lap of 1:34.022, well ahead of Alessio Lorandi and Tatiana Calderón.

Conditions were perfect this morning for what become a practice qualifying session, with the pace running fast and frantic for the first hour of the session. All of the drivers were on track as soon as the green flags were shown, with Boccolacci setting the first competitive lap time before sharing the top spot widely: Arjun Maini, Niko Kari, Raoul Hyman, Fukuzumi and Anthoine Hubert all spent time in P1, with the Frenchman claiming it just after an hour passes before the teams switched to long runs.

In the afternoon the circuit warmed up even more: Boccolacci was the only driver on circuit for the first quarter hour, setting a competitive time before his rivals joined him on track. The Frenchman set his best time at the half hour mark, with few other drivers making much of an effort to compete on times, prefering to concentrate on race distances. The session was marred by two brief red flag periods (for Ryan Tveter at 14:15 and for Calderón and Hyman stoppages 30 mins later), before closing on time at 16.00.

The teams will now carefully peruse the data before reforming down the coast next week at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on 25-26 April. The sessions will start each day at 09:00 local time and run until 12:00: on Tuesday the afternoon session will run from 14:00 to 17:00, while on Wednesday this will be pushed forward an hour to 13:00 before closing at 16:00.

Day 2 Morning results

Driver Team Laptime Laps
1 Dorian Boccolacci Trident 1:32.896 45
2 Nirei Fukuzumi ART Grand Prix 1:32.908 41
3 Jack Aitken ART Grand Prix 1:32.915 46
4 George Russell ART Grand Prix 1:32.944 57
5 Niko Kari Arden International 1:33.303 47
6 Raoul Hyman Campos Racing 1:33.374 44
7 Kevin Joerg Trident 1:33.437 45
8 Marcos Siebert Campos Racing 1:33.445 36
9 Santino Ferrucci DAMS 1:33.451 41
10 Arjun Maini Jenzer Motorsport 1:33.534 36
11 Leonardo Pulcini Arden International 1:33.593 41
12 Anthoine Hubert ART Grand Prix 1:33.640 43
13 Tatiana Calderon DAMS 1:33.702 35
14 Bruno Baptista DAMS 1:33.849 40
15 Alessio Lorandi Jenzer Motorsport 1:33.873 40
16 Ryan Tveter Trident 1:33.973 42
17 Julien Falchero Campos Racing 1:34.009 34
18 Steijn Schothorst Arden International 1:34.141 44
19 Giuliano Alesi Trident 1:34.234 41

Day 2 Afternoon results

Driver Team Laptime Laps
1 Dorian Boccolacci Trident 1:34.022 43
2 Alessio Lorandi Jenzer Motorsport 1:35.425 41
3 Tatiana Calderon DAMS 1:35.624 34
4 Raoul Hyman Campos Racing 1:35.716 37
5 Santino Ferrucci DAMS 1:35.963 47
6 Julien Falchero Campos Racing 1:36.281 39
7 Arjun Maini Jenzer Motorsport 1:36.358 35
8 Marcos Siebert Campos Racing 1:36.374 40
9 Ryan Tveter Trident 1:36.430 41
10 Niko Kari Arden International 1:36.928 54
11 Leonardo Pulcini Arden International 1:36.987 35
12 Steijn Schothorst Arden International 1:37.147 51
13 Giuliano Alesi Trident 1:37.160 44
14 George Russell ART Grand Prix 1:37.546 53
15 Kevin Joerg Trident 1:37.600 46
16 Anthoine Hubert ART Grand Prix 1:37.713 53
17 Nirei Fukuzumi ART Grand Prix 1:37.732 54
18 Jack Aitken ART Grand Prix 1:37.753 48
19 Bruno Baptista DAMS 1:37.809 44

GP3 Press Release