For the second weekend in a row, it was a Trident driver who topped the FIA Formula 3 practice session as Lirim Zendeli pipped his teammate David Beckmann by 0.008s to the top time.
Zendeli was quick last week when he qualified on the front row for the opening race of the season and backed up his pace at a track he loves.
A late virtual safety car for a splattered DRS board courtesy of third Trident Olli Caldwell at turn 10 meant the final two minutes saw everyone improving lap times in a qualifying sim shootout.
Behind the Trident duo came more of last week’s leading drivers, Alex Peroni was third where he finished in race one of the season ahead of the lead PREMA Frederik Vesti.
Aleksandr Smolyar impressed despite having laps deleted for track limits ended the session fifth from PREMA duo Logan Sargeant and championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Fastest qualifier last weekend was Sebastián Fernández who ended eighth from two driver with contrasting experiecnes of Macau. GP winner Richard Verschoor was ninth from Sophia Floersch who had the crash of her career on the famous streets in 2018.
Worrying times for Max Fewtrell and Hitech GP as the Brit stopped on track briefly at turn seven before being stuck in the pits for longer than he’d have liked with technical issues. He could only manage 24th with the best Hitech car being Liam Lawson in 13th.
Pos. | Name | Team | Lap Time |
1 | Lirim Zendeli | Trident | 1:19:994 |
2 | David Beckmann | Trident | 1:20:002 |
3 | Alex Peroni | Campos | 1:20:037 |
4 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 1:20:206 |
5 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART | 1:20:256 |
6 | Logan Sargeant | PREMA | 1:20:324 |
7 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | 1:20:512 |
8 | Sebastián Fernández | ART | 1:20:544 |
9 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1:20:549 |
10 | Sophia Floersch | Campos | 1:20:663 |
11 | Olli Caldwell | Trident | 1:20:694 |
12 | Théo Pourchaire | ART | 1:20:762 |
13 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 1:20:783 |
14 | David Schumacher | Charouz | 1:20:823 |
15 | Bent Viscaal | MP Motorsport | 1:20:855 |
16 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 1:20:875 |
17 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | 1:20:909 |
18 | Igor Fraga | Charouz | 1:20:920 |
19 | Cameron Das | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:20:996 |
20 | Roman Stanek | Charouz | 1:21:017 |
21 | Jack Doohan | HWA Racelab | 1:21:024 |
22 | Federico Malvestiti | Jenzer | 1:21:042 |
23 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HWA Racelab | 1:21:047 |
24 | Max Fewtrell | Hitech GP | 1:21:101 |
25 | Matteo Nannini | Jenzer | 1:21:106 |
26 | Clément Novalak | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:21:173 |
27 | Dennis Hauger | Hitech GP | 1:21:214 |
28 | Lukas Dunner | MP Motorsport | 1:21:229 |
29 | Enaam Ahmed | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:21:342 |
30 | Alessio Deledda | Campos | 1:21:769 |