The first day of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing began with thirty cars out on track, including sixteen drivers, new to the F3 machinery.
In the opening hour, Italian driver Gabriele Mini went top of the times 1:31.217, followed Sebastian Montoya, freshly off impressing in the last two races of the Formula 3 season with Campos Racing.
Josep Maria Marti was the first driver to venture below the 1.31’s setting a 1:30.957. However, Mini claimed top spot back from the Spaniard later on in the session recording a 1:30.499 with just over an hour remaining of the morning session.
Red flags soon followed as Kaylen Frederick found the gravel at turn six.
Mini rounded off an eventful morning session by colliding with the barriers at turn ten to bring out the second red flag of the session.
The final red flag of the session came out after Sebastian Montoya saw his Hitech car end up in the wall at the same turn as Mini before him.
The afternoon session began with Oliver Goethe going fastest for Trident, setting a 1:31.749. His teammate Gabriel Bortoleto soon shot up to second, making up a Trident 1-2 within the opening half an hour, before the first red flag of the afternoon session was waved.
Roborto Faria found his Van Amersfoort Racing car in the gravel between turns eight and nine forcing the cars into the pits.
As the afternoon session reached the halfway point, Goethe led, followed by Bortoleto and Josep Maria Marti.
The fourth red flag of the day came out soon enough, for an incident involving Emerson Fittipaldi at turn ten, but the incident was quickly cleared and the session was resumed again with an hour and twenty minutes remaining.
Zak O’Sulliavan, behind the wheel of the PREMA car, was next to top the times setting a 1:31.669, before another red flag was thrown as Hunter Yeany found his Carlin car in the gravel, again at turn ten.
O’Sullivan’s PREMA teammate Dino Beganovic hoisted himself to the top of the times after the restart, until Kaylen Frederick usurped the swede to take the lead with a 1:31.275, which would keep him at top spot come the end of the session.
With around five minutes remaining of the afternoon session, another incident at turn ten, this time by Alessandro Famularo, drew the final red flag of the day, as the session was not resumed and the checkered flag was waved.
This meant the afternoon session came to its conclusion with Kaylen Fredrich topping the times for ART GP followed by Dino Beganovic and Gregoire Saucy, while Rafael Villagomez and Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top five in Jerez.
