Leonardo Pulcini fastest in dry/wet/dry Day 1 test

Leonardo Pulcini has set the fastest laptime of Day 1 of the second FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing today at Barcelona, Spain. The Italian driver from Hitech Grand Prix clocked in a time of a 1:33.007 in the morning session to top the day overall ahead of Liam Lawson and Robert Shwartzman.

The session opened in fresh temperatures. It was Logan Sargeant who hit the track first ahead of the rest of the pack whilst Raoul Hyman set the early pace at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

In the opening hour, Felipe Drugovich went quickest ahead of Lawson before Andreas Estner brought out a first Red Flag after he clipped the wall at Turn 8. At the re-start, Shwartzman claimed the top spot, but Pulcini found some extra pace to better the Russian’s time by four tenths.

In the final hour, Shwartzman went quickest once more, but Lawson improved on the PREMA racer’s time by one thousandths to sit pretty at the top with thirty minutes left on the clock.

In the dying stages, Pulcini put his head down to lap the track in a 1:33.007 to lead Lawson and Shwartzman at the chequered flag. Jake Hughes, Alexander Peroni, Marcus Armstrong, Yifei Ye, David Beckmann, Jüri Vips and Jehan Daruvala completed the top ten.

Half an hour before the afternoon session started, the rain fell heavily above the track. It subsided as the pitlane went green. Lawson was the first driver to dive onto the wet circuit and set the early pace ahead of Richard Verschoor.

The proceedings were halted twice in the opening hour: first, it was Niko Kari who stopped at Turn 6, and then it was Artem Petrov who ran wide and stopped in the gravel bed at Turn 3. The Jenzer driver brought out a third red flag in the early stages of the second hour after he span and stopped at Turn 11.

At the re-start Lawson improved further, but Shwartzman dipped under 1m49s to go quickest. A fourth red flag interrupted the running after Ye stopped at Turn 22. In the final half hour, Teppei Natori went off track at Turn 4 thus halting the proceedings again.

As the track dried even further, most drivers switched to slick tyres and lapped the circuit in the 1m34s. At the chequered flag, Drugovich claimed the top spot in a 1:33.284 to edge Max Fewtrell whilst Beckmann finished third ahead of Sargeant, Peroni, Christian Lundgaard, Lawson, Sebastian Fernandez, Shwartzman and Armstrong completed the top 10.

Day 2 will start tomorrow at 9am local time.