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F3 - Official day of testing at Le Castellet promises exciting season kick-off

01.04.16
With the third official day of testing, held at Le Castellet’s 3.841-kilometre long Circuit Paul Ricard, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship teams and drivers prepared for the season kick-off that will be contested this weekend at the same venue.

In windy conditions, Germany’s Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam) set the fastest lap time in Southern France by crossing the line in 1:21.481 minutes, followed by Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:21.485) and Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam, 1:21.491). So, the gap between the top three amounted to less than 0.01 seconds.

Maximilian Günther took the top position on the time sheets only in the closing stages of the afternoon session and nobody was able to beat his time until the day of testing was over. Just two minutes earlier Mikkel Jensen had taken the lead but in the end, Günther was 0.004 seconds faster than the Dane who was happy with his achievements, nevertheless: “It was a good test day altogether,” he said. “We tried and tested a lot of things – some worked, others didn’t. But that’s what days of testing are for.” Apart from Arjun Maini (ThreeBond with T-Sport, 1:23.114 minutes), Jensen was the only driver who executed the tests without a team-mate. “That’s kind of weird and sometimes makes finding the right line more difficult.”

Third position on time sheets was secured by Lance Stroll. “This was a good day,” said the Canadian. “But the occasional strong wind made setting consistent lap times somewhat difficult.” Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark, 1:21.564 minutes) confirmed: “The wind was constantly changing from strong to not so strong. And when it was blowing stronger you could easily feel it on the straights.” With an interval of just 0.083 seconds to the quickest, Maximilian Günther, the Brazilian finished fifth, right behind the best rookie of the day: Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1:21.509 minutes). George Russell (HitechGP, 1:21.649 minutes) also regarded the wind as aggressive but made it to sixth position, nevertheless. “I have been driving on this track for the first time,” he revealed, “And I am happy with my performance. Altogether I have been happy with all our days of testing. On all the days we solely focused on our own programme. The results were of minor importance. They only count tomorrow in the qualifying session.”

F3 old hand Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam, 1:21.697 minutes) finished seventh, ahead of the three rookies Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:21.723), Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam, 1:21,761) and Niko Kari (Motopark, 1:21.817).

Not only the close gaps between the top ten positions demonstrated the extreme competitiveness of the field but the fact that the 19th-fastest driver was less than a second slower than the quickest did so too. The interval of 19th-placed Nikita Mazepin (HitechGP, 1:22.439 minutes) to Maximilian Günther amounted to 0.958 seconds. “Compared to many rivals I’m rather inexperienced. I have only one year of Formula Renault 2.0 experience under my belt,” said the Russian. “Currently I feel like I did at the beginning of the 2015 season when I switched from karting to single-seater racing. I know that I still have to learn a lot but I think that my team with my two team-mates offers me great preconditions for deliver in good style this season.”