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Ceccon fastest on day 1 of post-season testing

Italian ace Kevin Ceccon posted the quickest laptime of the day: a 1:55.501 set in the morning. French rookie Andrea Pizzitola topped the times in the afternoon session with a 1:55.832, narrowly beating Mitch Gilbert in the Arden International car.


The morning test session opened up in glorious conditions at the Yas Marina Circuit for day one of post-season testing. There were plenty of new faces and many drivers testing a GP3 car for the very first time as the pitlane was frenetic with activity with everyone keen to get on track. The drivers were using the soft Pirelli compound.

Frenchman Pizzitola was fast out the doors for ART Grand Prix with Carlin’s Ed Jones in second and Ferrari Academy driver Antonio Fuoco in third. Jenzer Motorsport’s Kevin Ceccon went P1, but Pizzitola lapped a tenth quicker to re-take his place at the head of the timings.

The Italian found more pace to shoot back up to the top of the timesheet, 0.060s his advantage over Pizzitola. At the midway point, Jones and Arden International’s George Russell demoted Pizzitola to fourth as the positions below them remained fairly static with the best times being set early on in the session.

There was one red flag near the close of the morning test when Jenzer Motorsport’s Raoul Hyman stopped at Turn 7; however the action resumed with three minutes remaining.

At the chequered flag, Ceccon led Jones, Russell, Pizzitola, Trident’s Luca Ghiotto, Patrick Kujala (Arden International), Christopher Mies (Hilmer Motorsport), Ralph Boschung (Jenzer Motorsport), Mitch Gilbert (Arden International) and Matt Parry (Status Grand Prix).

Following GP2’s turn on track, GP3 returned for their afternoon session. The test was briefly halted when Trident’s Alex Palou spun, the Spaniard was able to continue and action resumed. Pizzitola set the early pace, first to lap in the 1m55’s in the afternoon session, with Gilbert hot on his tail.

Fuoco’s Koiranen GP car stopped on track causing a short interruption to proceedings but once the track was green Palou set the fastest first sector to go P3, with Mathéo Tuscher (replacing Ceccon for the afternoon test) in fourth.

With half an hour left on the clock, the session was red flagged when Carlin’s Matt Rao made contact with the barrier at turns 3-4. The track became live again with just five minutes remaining and at the chequered flag Pizzitola edged out Gilbert by a mere 0.053s. Palou, Tuscher, Russell, Artur Janosz (ART Grand Prix), Parry, Alfonso Celis. Jr (Status Grand Prix), Ryan Cullen (Koiranen GP) and Boschung completed the top ten.

Day two of testing will run at the same local times: 09.00 – 11.30 and 15.00 – 17.30 (GMT+4).

Yas Marina – Day 1: Morning

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Kevin Ceccon

Jenzer Motorsport

1:55.501

26

2.

Ed Jones

Carlin

1:56.165

24

3.

George Russell

Arden International

1:56.198

27

4.

Andrea Pizzitola

ART Grand Prix

1:56.220

25

5.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:56.264

23

6.

Patrick Kujala

Arden International

1:56.309

18

7.

Christopher Mies

Hilmer Motorsport

1:56.474

32

8.

Ralph Boschung

Jenzer Motorsport

1:56.511

30

9.

Mitch Gilbert

Arden International

1:56.703

25

10.

Matt Parry

Status Grand Prix

1:56.705

26

11.

Steijn Schothorst

Koiranen GP

1:56.819

26

12.

Antonio Fuoco

Koiranen GP

1:56.973

20

13.

Ryan Cullen

Koiranen GP

1:56.993

16

14.

Gustavo Menezes

Carlin

1:57.043

30

15.

Alex Palou

Trident

1:57.176

25

16.

Alfonso Celis. Jr

Status Grand Prix

1:57.189

23

17.

Raoul Hyman

Jenzer Motorsport

1:57.316

22

18.

Tatiana Calderon

ART Grand Prix

1:57.325

28

19.

Ling Kang

Hilmer Motorsport

1:57.341

21

20.

Seb Morris

Status Grand Prix

1:57.670

19

21.

Amaury Bonduel

Trident

1:57.867

27

22.

Matt Rao

Carlin

1:58.265

24

23.

Artur Janosz

ART Grand Prix

1:58.557

20

Yas Marina – Day One: Afternoon

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Andrea Pizzitola

ART Grand Prix

1:55.832

29

2.

Mitch Gilbert

Arden International

1:55.885

25

3.

Alex Palou

Trident

1:55.971

25

4.

Mathéo Tuscher

Jenzer Motorsport

1:56.034

22

5.

George Russell

Arden International

1:56.078

23

6.

Artur Janosz

ART Grand Prix

1:56.258

23

7.

Matt Parry

Status Grand Prix

1:56.475

22

8.

Alfonso Celis. Jr

Status Grand Prix

1:56.491

25

9.

Ryan Cullen

Koiranen GP

1:56.517

20

10.

Ralph Boschung

Jenzer Motorsport

1:56.559

18

11.

Gustavo Menezes

Carlin

1:56.560

19

12.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:56.570

16

13.

Steijn Schothorst

Koiranen GP

1:56.595

15

14.

Edward Jones

Carlin

1:56.684

18

15.

Antonio Fuoco

Koiranen GP

1:56.783

26

16.

Seb Morris

Status Grand Prix

1:56.846

19

17.

Patrick Kujala

Arden International

1:56.946

26

18.

Raoul Hyman

Jenzer Motorsport

1:56.989

30

19.

Tatiana Calderon

ART Grand Prix

1:57.068

22

20.

Christopher Mies

Hilmer Motorsport

1:57.404

28

21.

Ling Kang

Hilmer Motorsport

1:57.720

27

22.

Armaury Bonduel

Trident

1:59.153

19

23.

Matt Rao

Carlin

1:59.405

19

GP3 Series Press Release