The quickest on day one at Hockenheim’s 4.574-kilometre long GP circuit was Alessio Lorandi (Carlin, 1:32.226 minutes), followed by Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:32.315), Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:32.331) and George Russell (HitechGP, 1:32.333). This means that four drivers racing for four different teams made it to the top four on the time sheets. The fastest rookies of the sunny day at Hockenheim were Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:32.390 minutes) and Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1:32.417) who finished fifth and sixth respectively.

“I felt good right from the start, my car and I formed a true entity,” Alessio Lorandi described his day of testing with just a few words. “In the past two race meetings we had our problems in the qualifying sessions but I hope that we have got a grip on that. On the other hand, assessing test results properly always is difficult. After all, you never know what the other teams have tried and tested,” the Italian admits.

Behind Lorandi who celebrated his only FIA Formula 3 European Championship win to date in this year’s GP de Pau, Mikkel Jensen came second. The Dane was just 0.089 seconds slower than Lorandi. Callum Ilott finished third on the time sheets. “We completed our laps, tested a few things and are happy with our achievements,” he said. George Russell who finished fourth ahead of the rookie pairing Harrison Newey and Joel Eriksson came to a similar conclusion: “We completed our scheduled programme and didn’t mind the lap times, today.”

Championship leader Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam, 1:32.467 minutes) had to settle for finishing seventh, with Ben Barnicoat (HitechGP, 1:32.489 minutes), David Beckmann (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:32.654 minutes) and Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:32.751 minutes) finishing eighth, ninth and tenth respectively. “I like this circuit and we had a good day of testing,” said the Brazilian. “This will boost my confidence for the upcoming races.”

For Team Fortec that made its first FIA Formula 3 European Championship appearance this year, Ferdinand Habsburg (1:32.65 minutes) and Vasily Romanov (1:34.380 minutes) finished 18th and 23rd. “Feeling the grip wasn’t easy,” revealed Russian Romanov who covered his first kilometres at the wheel of a Formula 3 single-seater. And his Austrian team-mate added: “I just lack the experience with the Hankook tyres you need to make maximum use of their peak. But I think that’s normal. Altogether, having been involved in this day of testing was a good experience.”