Ferrari junior and Prema’s Marcus Armstrong headed the standings on Day 1 of 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship (F3) at Paul Ricard.
With a shakedown completed at Magny Cours last month for the new F3 machines, the first official 2019 pre-season test kick-started at France’s Paul Ricard under a sunny weather with Prema’s Armstrong topping the timesheets with a 1m49.243s lap.
He set his best time in the afternoon session ahead of Sauber Junior Team by Charouz’s Lirim Zendeli (1m49.578s), who ended up in a Prema sandwich with Robert Shwartzman (1m49.634s) in third – the latter two also setting their time in the afternoon session.
In fourth was Hitech GP’s Leonardo Pulcini (1m49.656s) with Renault junior and ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard in fifth, who set a 1m49.685s to top the morning session, with MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor (1m49.740s) sixth.
The Dutchman caused a red flag in the morning session along with Trident’s Devlin DeFrancesco with the duo stopping at Turn 1 and Turn 7 respectively. There was another red flag in the morning session due to a technical assessment.
Meanwhile, Verschoor was followed by teammate Simo Laaksonen (1m49.770s) with Campos Racing’s Sebastian Fernandez (1m49.793s), ART’s David Beckmann (1m49.893s) and Prema’s Jehan Daruvala (1m49.956s) rounding the Top 10.
Just missing out in the Top 10 was Campos’ Alexander Peroni (1m50.014s) with Trident’s Niko Kari (1m50.078s) following him – the Finn setting his best time in the morning session. He was followed by Honda junior and Jenzer’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m50.117s).
Renault junior and Carlin Buzz Racing’s Logan Sargeant (1m50.181s) ended up 14th despite causing a red flag in the afternoon session at Turn 7 as he led Red Bull junior and Hitech GP’s Juri Vips (1m50.202s), who also caused one after stopping in the same corner.
Vips set his time in the morning session. The Estonian led fellow Red Bull junior and MP Motorsport’s Liam Lawson (1m50.317s) with Jenzer’s temporary driver Andreas Estner (1m50.335s) in 17th ahead of Sauber Junior Team’s Raoul Hyman (1m50.493s).
Renault junior and ART’s Max Fewtrell (1m50.498s) morning time put him in 19th ahead of Trident’s Pedro Piquet’s (1m50.597s). Carlin Buzz Racing’s Felipe Drugovich (1m50.619s) was 21st ahead of Sauber’s Fabio Scherer (1m50.858s).
Next up were Trident’s DeFrancesco (1m50.877s), Jenzer’s Artem Petrov (1m50.906s), Hitech GP’s Ye Yifei (1m50.927s) in 23rd, 24th and 25th with Honda junior and Carlin Buzz Racing’s Teppei Natori (1m51.045s) in 26th.
HWA Racelab’s Bent Viscaal (1m51.244s) 27th with Campos’ Alessio Deledda (1m51.660s) in 28th ahead of two other HWA Racelab drivers Keyvan Andres (1m51.741s) and Jake Hughes (2m21.077s) – with the latter only getting five laps in all.