Nirei Fukuzumi (ART Grand Prix) has been the fastest driver of the first day of the GP3 Series collective test, leading rookies Jake Dennis and Alexander Albon.
The 2016 GP3 Series season officially started today with the first day of collective test in Portugal on the track of Estoril. It is the second time the new GP3/16 cars are out after the shakedown earlier this month at Magny-Cours.
The conditions are not optimal on track as it rained the night before, giving the drivers a very wet track. But with the warming sun and cars driving round, the track dries quite fast, allowing driving to quickly switch to slick Pirelli tyres.
In the first hour, only six drivers set a laptime, most of drivers sticking to installation laps. The first red flag is cause by Tatiana Calderon who stopped her Arden International car on track. When the session resumed, Jake Hughes set the fastest time with DAMS’ first GP3 car.
The second red flag was cause by Konstantin Tereshchenko who ran into the gravel with his Campos Racing car. Hughes improved his best time when the session resumed before being beaten by Alexander Albon and Jake Dennis.
Three minutes to the clock for the morning session, Steijn Schothorst dipped the best laptime with 1:29.792 ahead of rookies Dennis and Albon.
In the afternoon, the track suffered of high winds without disturbing Charles Leclerc who was the fastest after lunch, quickly joined by ART teammate Alexander Albon. Every driver managed to improve and lots of them found a place at the top step. The third and last red flag was caused again by Tereshchenko who stopped on track.
Nirei Fukuzumi topped the sheet at the green flag and was never beaten with his 1:28.645 laptime, 0.015s faster than Dennis and 0.06s faster than Albon.
