Championship Leader Hauger tops French practice

FIA Formula 3 returned to the track after a long month away with Dennis Hauger continuing his strong start to the year by topping the only practice session at Paul Ricard in France.

The Norwegian leads fellow PREMA teammate Olli Caldwell by just two points in the standings after a chaotic weekend in Barcelona but he doubled down on his impressive speed to go a quarter of a second faster than anyone.

Those nearest challengers were led by MP Motorsport’s Alpine junior Caio Collet who was in the top five throughout the session showing good speed at all stages of the 45 minutes. Even a brief red flag for Reshad De Gerus, who ended up in the wall at turn six, couldn’t deter the Brazilian who impressed as a rookie in Spain.

Jack Doohan was third fastest for Trident with Frederik Vesti fourth, both of whom were hoping for better results in Barcelona and are looking to rectify that this weekend.

Collet’s teammate Victor Martins was the best of the home-race drivers in fifth as the Frenchman races at his home Grand Prix for the first time.

The youngest driver in the field Jak Crawford was a surprise in the top ten ending the session sixth for Hitech GP. The American from Charlotte, North Carolina has chosen Formula 3 over Euroformula Open’s races at Spa this weekend with him racing in both series in 2021.

Aleksandr Smolyar won the first race of the season in Barcelona but he could only manage seventh in this session ahead of Carlin’s British Red Bull junior Jonny Edgar and Jenzer duo Calan Williams and Jonathan Hoggard, who replaces Pierre-Louis Chovet for the remainder of the year.

Chovet is still racing this weekend however as he takes László Tóth’s seat at Campos while the Hungarian recovers from a positive COVID-19 test earlier this week.