Jake Hughes and Tom Dillmann set the pace during the two-day Formula 3.5 V8 test at the Circuit de Catalunya that took place on Monday and Tuesday.
British driver Hughes, eyeing a promotion to the championship having been a race winner in Formula Renault 2.0 in 2015, set the pace on day one for Carlin, while the already confirmed Dillmann led the way on day two for AVF with a circuit record breaking pace.
Eight teams participated in the two-day private test, with RP Motorsport making their first appearance since announcing their plans to join the series in 2016, with the EuroFormula Open frontrunners testing two of their former champions Sandy Stuvik and Vitor Baptista, plus European Formula 3 race winner Markus Pommer across the two days.
Hughes set the best time of Monday’s running in the closing minutes of the day, beating Dillmann’s earlier pace by 0.275s, while Egor Orudzhev, who looks increasingly likely to be retained by Arden Motorsport for a second season, was third, just ahead of the second Carlin of Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi.
Roy Nissany and Kevin Jörg placed fifth and sixth for the Charouz-run Lotus team, with Eurocup champion Jack Aitken seventh for Fortec Motorsports ahead of AVF’s Alfonso Celis Jr, Pommer (who was running for Arden on day one) and Vladimir Atoev, who was running with Spirit of Race.
Dillmann set the best time during the morning session on day two, setting the best time ever around the circuit in one of these cars of 1m28.549s, which was at least a second faster than anyone else managed on the day.
Jörg placed second ahead of Celis Jr, while Aitken placed fourth ahead of the second Fortec entry of Louis Deletraz. Josef Zaruba was sixth in the sole Pons Racing entry present at the test, ahead of Pommer (now in the RP Motorsport car), Hughes, Nissany and Atoev.
Tech 1 Racing and Strakka Racing were absent from the test, as were Teo Martin Motorsport, who have yet to take to the race track following their decision to take over the entry vacated by DAMS.
Circuit de Catalunya Test Day 1 Times
[table id=786 /]
Circuit de Catalunya Test Day 2 Times
[table id=787 /]
