Hitech Grand Prix rookie Hadjar tops the timesheets for the second successive day in Sakhir

Hitech Grand Prix rookie Isack Hadjar finished fastest for the second day in a row at pre-season testing in Sakhir with a lap of 1:47.247. The Frenchman set the quickest time of testing overall in the morning session before a sandstorm hampered the afternoon running.

PREMA Racing’s Jak Crawford and ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy finished in second and third as Hadjar ended the final day with a comfortable 0.381s margin at the top of the leaderboard.

Trident’s Roman Staněk finished on top of the afternoon session - which managed to finish under a green flag despite the sandy conditions - beating Van Amersfoort’s Reece Ushijima and Trident’s Zane Maloney.

MORNING

All 30 cars headed out on a cloudy and humid final morning in Sakhir, and it was Hadjar who impressed again. The Frenchman put in an impressive 44 laps to lead both the timing page and the mileage count in the morning.

The Red Bull-backed 17-year-old ended the session with a 0.381s advantage over Crawford, who made the top two for the first time this week. Swiss racer Saucy led the standings at the start of the session, but had dropped back to third at the flag, 0.0472s off Hadjar.

MP Motorsport pairing Caio Collet and Alex Smolyar completed the top five, ahead of Campos Racing’s David Vidales, who made his maiden appearance in the top 10.

READ MORE: Maini says that spending 2021 on the side-lines has made him’ hungrier’ to succeed in F3

The sole Red Flag of the penultimate session came courtesy of Kaylen Frederick, whose Hitech stopped at Turn 3. The American ended the session in eighth, one place behind ART’s Victor Martins.

Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan carried on his consistent performances at testing to place inside of the top 10 for the third successive session, ahead of Staněk.

AFTERNOON

The grid had to navigate a sandstorm as Staněk topped the final session of pre-season, setting a 1:48.182 in the final hour. The Trident racer finished 0.616s ahead of his nearest rival, as Ushijima pipped Maloney to second by 0.009s in the final 15 minutes.

The top six was made up exclusively of Trident and Van Amersfoort drivers, as Franco Colapinto placed fourth, ahead of Jonny Edgar and Rafael Villagomez. It was Colapinto who led the lap-count, completing 43 tours of the Bahrain International Circuit in the afternoon.

There were three Red Flags in the final session of the week with Josep María Martí, László Tóth and Saucy all stopping on track on separate occasions during the session.

READ MORE: Hadjar says he’s been excited to race in F3 since he started in single-seaters

Campos Racing rookie Hunter Yeany broke into the top 10 for the first time this week, finishing in seventh. The American’s teammate Vidales placed inside of the top 10 for the second session in a row, finishing eighth behind Frederick.

Ido Cohen led for large periods of the session but had fallen out of the top 10 by the end of the afternoon. However, his teammate William Alatalo managed to hold on for 10th.

Formula 3 will return to Bahrain for the opening round of the season on March 18.

2022 FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – SAKHIR PRE-SEASON TESTS, DAY 3, MORNING SESSION

2022 FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – SAKHIR PRE-SEASON TESTS, DAY 3, AFTERNOON SESSION