Early Championship leader Anthoine Hubert topped the free practice session at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Friday morning as the GP3 Series got its first ever appearance in France underway.
ART Grand Prix dominated the session, taking the top four spots, with Hubert’s lap of 1:51.091s more than four-tenths of a second clear of team-mates Jake Hughes, Nikita Mazepin and Callum Ilott.
Hubert leads the championship heading into his home event on the back of two second place finishes at the season-opening round at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last month, and he was 0.449 seconds faster than Hughes, with Mazepin and Ilott 0.486 and 0.496 seconds back respectively.
Dorian Boccolacci was the best of the rest for MP Motorsport in fifth, 0.516 seconds down, just ahead of Trident’s Giuliano Alesi, while Leonardo Pulcini (Campos Racing), Joey Mawson (Arden International) and Niko Kari (MP Motorsport) were all within eight-tenths of a second of Hubert’s time, with Pedro Piquet of Trident completing the top ten.
Christian Lundgaard, the sixteen-year-old Renault Sport Academy star making his debut this weekend for MP Motorsport in place of Will Palmer, finished just outside the top ten, with the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship contender finishing just ahead of Simo Laaksonen, Tatiana Calderon and Ryan Tveter.
There were a few issues lower down the order, with Gabriel Aubry (Arden International) and Juan Manuel Correa (Jenzer Motorsport) both stopping on track, while Alessio Lorandi (Trident) returned to the pits with a broken rear wing.
