Across two days and four sessions, the 30 Formula 3 drivers got a chance to test out the brand-new hybrid circuit in Madrid ahead of the season finale.
Formula 3 will head to Madrid alongside F1 and F2. However, F3 will be unique as it’s their season finale and will have two feature races rather than the usual sprint-feature schedule.
This change makes up for the missed round in the Middle East, which was cancelled due to the ongoing conflict.
Day 1
With a brand-new track that no other cars had raced on, the F3 cars were slow to get out. Each driver took their time on exploratory laps to learn where the braking zones were and where the grip was best.
The first red flag came out just 14 minutes into the session, with three more to come. In the first hour, Yevan David led the field with a leading time of 1:54.669s.
Christian Ho made contact with the barriers, bringing out the second red flag of the day, but the track was cleared quickly, and the field got back to it.
The times were quickly coming down as the field got to grips with the track. At the end of the first session of Day 1, Ugo Ugochukwu led the field from Bruno Del Pino and Enzo Deligny with a time of 1:51.901s.
The afternoon session saw Fernando Barrichello bring out a Red Flag early on in the session as he hit the barriers at Turn 17.
As the action resumed, Freddie Slater shot to the top of the order with a time of 1:51.638s. There were four more Red Flags as the field struggled to settle into the unknowns of the track.
It was Slater who brought out the final one of the day as he hit the Turn 10 barriers and stopped on track slightly further up. Despite the crash, he held onto the top spot from 1:50.343s with Taito Kato and Theophil Nael close behind at the end of the afternoon session.
Day 2
It was another day of disrupted running on the second test day, with Barrichello bringing out the first Red Flag of the session as he spun at Turn 8. However, he thankfully avoided the barriers and recovered the car to the pit lane.
As the action resumed, Nael took the top spot, but the times were still slower than Day 1’s fastest times.
Just a minute later Ernesto Rivera beat the overall fastest lap of the test so far with a 1:50.108s, his lead out front sitting at just 0.060s. From there the time continue to tumble with Kato breaking into the 1:49s, which was quickly beaten by Yevan David.
Woohyun Shin made contact with the wall at Turn 5 which brought out the Red Flags once again while Ugochukwu topped the timings with a time if 1:49.034s.
Despite the field trying to close the gap to Ugochukwu they were halted once more in the final minutes of the morning session with another Red Flag.
The Afternoon session saw Fionn McLaughlin bring out the first Red Flag as he stopped on track. As the action resumed the times steadied, with most drivers focusing on longer race pace stints rather than the one lap glory runs.
There were three more Red Flags across half an hour, with Matteo De Palo, Mattia Colnaghi and Nicola Lacorte all suffering issues that brought the action to a grinding halt. Into the second half of the Afternoon session Slater shot into the top spot with a 1:49.685s.
A look to Madrid
The time remained the same through two final Red Flags in the final minutes of the session with Slater and Ugochukwu taking first and second on the timesheets.
The title contenders were barely seperated on the road in Madrid which bodes well for the fight which will likely og to the final race. Slater and Ugochukwu are currently seperated by just 8 points with over 50 points on offer in Madrid alone.
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