Callum Ilott was fastest on the opening day of the second pre-season test at the Red Bull Ring on Tuesday, with the Briton leading a Prema Powerteam 1-2 from Maximilian Günther.
It was a day of two halves for Ilott, who did not set a competitive lap time in the morning session but hit the front in the afternoon with a lap of 1:23.304, faster than the morning’s best of 1:23.693 set by Lando Norris of Carlin.
Despite Norris improving his time in the afternoon to a 1:23.526, Günther also outpaced him by 0.067 seconds.
Guan Yu Zhou made it three Prema cars inside the top four as thirteen drivers dipped beneath the 1 minute 24 second barrier, while just 1.585 second separating Ilott at the front from Keyvan Andres Soori at the back of the field.
Jehan Daruvala was fifth fastest for Carlin with team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg seventh, either side of the leading Motopark entry of 2016 rookie champion Joel Eriksson, with the Swede’s own team-mate Marino Sato eighth.
British racers completed the top ten, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Harrison Newey ahead of Carlin’s Jake Dennis, with two more Van Amersfoort drivers eleventh and twelfth, Pedro Piquet ahead of David Beckmann.
Mick Schumacher was unable to break into the top ten like his team-mates, with the fourth Prema Powerteam driver thirteenth fastest, albeit just 0.683 seconds down on Ilott’s best.
Red Bull Ring Test Day 1 Times
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