Changeable conditions and heavy rain sessions were the order of the day as the second day of the GP3 test got under way at the Hungaroring.
The overcast weather and threat of imminent rain meant that the majority of the 27 drivers set off early doors hoping to gain some competitive running before the heavens opened.
The early pace was set by yesterday’s lap record setter Kevin Korjus, the Koiranen GP driver set a strong 1:33 until Bamboo Engineering’s Melville McKee better that with a 1:33.568. That would prove to be the fastest laps of the morning session for both drivers – indeed with the heavy rain that fell in the afternoon they proved to be their days best.
The midpoint of the session saw light rain falling with the ensuing indecision on whether to run on wets or wait for it to dry out and carry on running race set ups. This meant that McKee’s time was untroubled until the final fifteen minutes of the two hour session when a proverbial tidal wave of drivers burst on to the track and lit up the timing screens with many drivers – including Carlin’s Nick Yelloly and Bamboo’s Lewis Williamson putting in 1:32s.
With five minutes left to go Facu Regalia finally barged his way to the top of the times with a 1:32.341. However the ART Grand Prix driver couldn’t keep up his strong showing in the afternoon session finishing the test week with a 1:53.933.
The main winner of the afternoon’s rain delayed running was Koiranen GP racer Aaro Vainio eventually finishing the day with a 1:32.993 set early in the session..
Indeed like day one – the afternoon session seemed to be the home of the red flag, with Adderly Fong making two out of two by being the first driver to bring out the red flag after stopping on track.
The biggest red flag was for the rain as the dark clouds that had been threatening for most of the day finally delivered their rain and led to a 35 minute delay in order to let the track drain of standing water and limit the aqua planing many GP3 drivers had been reporting.
With the track not fully drying out Vainio’s early time became an unobtainable goal with team mate Patrick Kujala finishing second and Giovanni Venturini finishing third for Trident.
The test provided a great opportunity for teams to have another run in the new GP3/13 before the next race at Valencia on June 15/16.
