Patrik Pasma Ends Fastest on Opening Day of FRECA’s Test in Barcelona

Patrik Pasma ended the opening day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with the fastest time, with the KIC Motorsport driver ending less than half a tenth of a second ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Grégoire Saucy.

Pasma, continuing with KIC Motorsport after taking multiple wins in Formula Regional European Championship in 2020, left it late to set a best time of 1:40.567 in the afternoon session in Spain to lead the way on day one of the second two-day test of 2021.

Just 0.046 seconds behind was ART’s Saucy, with Arden’s Alex Quinn third fastest on the day, just one-tenth of a second adrift, while Paul Aron was Prema Powerteam’s best placed driver in fourth, with his time of 1:40.748 set in the morning session.  He failed to improve in the afternoon, with five of the top six times being set in the second session.

R-ace GP’s Hadrien David, who was fastest on both days of last week’s first test at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, ended fifth fastest, while team-mate Isack Hadjar set a time identical to his fellow Frenchman.

MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto, another driver not to improve in the afternoon, was seventh ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini, while Van Amersfoort Racing’s Francesco Pizzi and Arden’s William Alatalo rounded out the top ten.

Thomas ten Brinke, the third of the ART Grand Prix drivers, missed out on the top ten by 0.066 seconds, with Prema’s Dino Beganovic and R-ace GP’s Zane Maloney twelfth and thirteenth.  Elias Seppänen ended fourteenth despite causing a late red flag, while David Vidales was fifteenth in the third Prema machine.

Thirty-two cars took the track, including Bélen Garcia of G4 Racing, but Léna Bühler was not one of them as she continues to recover from the injury that she suffered last week at Imola.