ART Grand Prix rookie Gregoire Saucy topped the first day of in-season testing at Barcelona, with the Swiss racer beating Van Amersfoort Racing’s Franco Colapinto and ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins.

Saucy set a 1:32.247 during a series of short runs on a sunny morning in Spain, beating Colapinto by 0.155s and Martins by 0.244s.

MP Motorsport’s Alex Smolyar went quickest during a long-run focused afternoon session, with the 20-year-old producing a 1:33.342 to finish ahead of his teammate Caio Collet and Trident’s Roman Staněk.

MORNING

Formula 2 had spent three days laying down some rubber in mostly cold conditions at Barcelona before Formula 3 hit the track on Friday morning in Spain. The sun was shining for the opening morning of the two-day test and almost all of the field headed out straight away for an installation lap.

David Schumacher had arrived as a late replacement for Ayrton Simmons in the Charouz Racing System at the two-day test and the German needed a seat fitting before getting out onto the tarmac. He managed eight laps towards the end of the session as he looked to get back up to speed with F3.

When the representative laps started flowing, Trident rookie Zane Maloney set the benchmark at 1:33.926 before his teammate Staněk broke the 1m 33s barrier to go top with a 1:32.678.

Isack Hadjar’s Hitech Grand Prix was one of two stoppages, with the Frenchman coming to a standstill at Turn 2 in the middle of the session. ART Grand Prix’s Matteo Nannini was the other, with the Italian stopping at Turn 10.

READ MORE: ‘I really love this car’ elates Hadjar on his positive start to life in F3

Smolyar was fastest in the afternoon session
Smolyar was fastest in the afternoon session

In-between the two Red Flags, Nannini’s teammate Saucy set the quickest time of the morning, the Swiss racer dropping a 1:32.247 to put himself at the head of the leaderboard.

Colapinto completed the most mileage in the morning, with 49 laps in total, and he also managed to set the second-fastest lap time. The Argentine was 0.155s off Saucy, with another ART driver, Victor Martins, in third - 0.244s off his teammate.

Maloney found further pace to improve on his time but could only manage fourth overall, with the Barbadian 0.396s off Saucy. Maloney’s quickest lap knocked Staněk down to fifth place, with MP Motorsport’s Kush Maini in sixth.

Jenzer Motorsport’s William Alatalo was seventh, just over five-tenths off the pace, with David Vidales eighth for Campos Racing and Alex Smolyar in ninth for MP Motorsport. Despite his stoppage, Nannini still managed to set the 10th fastest time.

AFTERNOON

In an unlikely turn of events, given the gloomy weather experienced at F2 testing earlier in the week, the sun remained out for a second successive session. All 30 drivers made a swift exit from the pitlane when the light went green as they got stuck into a series of long runs.

MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet set the baseline at 1:34.465, before being usurped by Hadjar at the midway point. The Brazilian broke the 1m 34s barrier to return to the head of the table but was swiftly overtaken by his teammate, Smolyar, who dropped a 1:33.342 to steal P1, knocking Collet to second.

Trident third-year Staněk punched in a late lap of 1:33.642 to beat Kush Maini to third and prevent an all-MP top three. The Indian did, however, manage to hold onto fourth, 0.567s off his teammate in P1.

READ MORE: Trulli sees ‘a lot of potential’ after making ‘big step’ to F3

Colapinto was the busiest driver on Day 1 posting 103 laps
Colapinto was the busiest driver on Day 1, posting 103 laps

Hadjar had been nudged down to sixth when the final car returned to the pitlane, with the morning’s fastest man, Saucy, stealing fifth place.

Arthur Leclerc beat his PREMA Racing teammate, Jak Crawford to eighth as Oliver Rasmussen set a late lap to break into the top 10 and take ninth, ahead of the third PREMA, Ollie Bearman. VAR’s Colapinto was once again the busiest man, completing a further 54 tours of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The second and final day of in-season testing at Barcelona will begin at 9am (local time) on Saturday. Saucy quickest for ART Grand Prix on first day of testing at Barcelona.

2022 FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – BARCELONA IN-SEASON TESTS, DAY 1, MORNING SESSION

DRIVERLICENCETEAMLAPTIMELAPS
1Grégoire SaucyCHEART Grand Prix1:32.24745
2Franco ColapintoARGVan Amersfoort Racing1:32.40249
3Victor MartinsFRAART Grand Prix1:32.49143
4Zane MaloneyBRBTrident1:32.64331
5Roman StanekCZETrident1:32.67824
6Kush MainiINDMP Motorsport1:32.71030
7William AlataloFINJenzer Motorsport1:32.75929
8David VidalesESPCampos Racing1:32.88233
9Alexander SmolyarANDMP Motorsport1:32.89430
10Matteo NanniniITAART Grand Prix1:32.89630
11Oliver RasmussenDNKTrident1:33.02725
12Kaylen FrederickUSAHitech Grand Prix1:33.06229
13Oliver BearmanGBRPREMA Racing1:33.08339
14Arthur LeclercMCOPREMA Racing1:33.09039
15Caio ColletBRAMP Motorsport1:33.18830
16Rafael VillagómezMEXVan Amersfoort Racing1:33.22640
17Isack HadjarFRAHitech Grand Prix1:33.35726
18Hunter YeanyUSACampos Racing1:33.36538
19Federico MalvestitiITAJenzer Motorsport1:33.38526
20Jak CrawfordUSAPREMA Racing1:33.45442
21Brad BenavidesESPCarlin1:33.64244
22Francesco PizziITACharouz Racing System1:33.74613
23Josep María MartíESPCampos Racing1:33.75842
24Reece UshijimaGBRVan Amersfoort Racing1:33.81938
25Zak O’SullivanGBRCarlin1:33.82344
26Enzo TrulliITACarlin1:33.87145
27Ido CohenISRJenzer Motorsport1:34.22632
28Nazim AzmanMYSHitech Grand Prix1:34.35031
29László TóthHUNCharouz Racing System1:35.61227
30David SchumacherDEUCharouz Racing System1:35.7098

2022 FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – BARCELONA IN-SEASON TESTS, DAY 1, AFTERNOON SESSION

DRIVERLICENCETEAMLAPTIMELAPS
1Alexander SmolyarANDMP Motorsport1:33.34238
2Caio ColletBRAMP Motorsport1:33.63934
3Roman StanekCZETrident1:33.64238
4Kush MainiINDMP Motorsport1:33.91827
5Grégoire SaucyCHEART Grand Prix1:33.99538
6Isack HadjarFRAHitech Grand Prix1:34.05040
7Arthur LeclercMCOPREMA Racing1:34.06728
8Jak CrawfordUSAPREMA Racing1:34.18827
9Oliver RasmussenDNKTrident1:34.27637
10Oliver BearmanGBRPREMA Racing1:34.31428
11Victor MartinsFRAART Grand Prix1:34.37539
12Zak O’SullivanGBRCarlin1:34.38930
13Kaylen FrederickUSAHitech Grand Prix1:34.50846
14Josep María MartíESPCampos Racing1:34.52744
15Matteo NanniniITAART Grand Prix1:34.58127
16Rafael VillagómezMEXVan Amersfoort Racing1:34.58151
17David VidalesESPCampos Racing1:34.60530
18David SchumacherDEUCharouz Racing System1:34.64929
19Francesco PizziITACharouz Racing System1:34.67139
20Federico MalvestitiITAJenzer Motorsport1:34.76138
21Zane MaloneyBRBTrident1:34.78647
22William AlataloFINJenzer Motorsport1:34.80741
23Brad BenavidesESPCarlin1:34.89830
24Enzo TrulliITACarlin1:34.92833
25Hunter YeanyUSACampos Racing1:35.25936
26Ido CohenISRJenzer Motorsport1:35.34340
27Reece UshijimaGBRVan Amersfoort Racing1:35.53748
28László TóthHUNCharouz Racing System1:35.88440
29Nazim AzmanMYSHitech Grand Prix1:35.88850
30Franco ColapintoARGVan Amersfoort Racing1:36.62354