Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello reinforced his status as one of the Formula 3 European Championship favourites by going comfortably fastest on the first official test day at Barcelona.
The Italian stretched out a 0.440-second advantage over Britain’s Alex Lynn as the duo completed a one-two for the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes squad, which took Daniel Juncadella to the 2012 title.
British team T-Sport was buoyed by Will Buller taking the third-fastest time in the ThreeBond Nissan-powered Dallara.
Buller was one of very few to hold back a set of Hankook tyres in the closing 30 minutes of the six hours of running, meaning he did not challenge at the front in the afternoon times.
Prema’s good day continued when Austrian Lucas Auer, effectively a rookie at this level of F3, topped the afternoon times to go fourth overall. He edged out the leading Volkswagen-powered runner, Carlin’s Harry Tincknell.
European F3 Open graduate Mans Grenhagen sprung a surprise, the Swede going sixth in his Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Volkswagen.
Behind Sven Muller, British F3 newcomer Jordan King and Pascal Wehrlein, Italian Antonio Giovinazzi – a veteran of just eight car-race meetings – did an impressive job to round out the top 10 in Double R Racing’s lead Dallara-Mercedes.
There were very few incidents on-track, but there was drama in the pits when Josh Hill’s Fortec car caught fire during the morning, although he carried on testing in the afternoon. The team’s fastest runner was Felix Serralles, in 12th.
The test continues on Saturday.
Combined Friday test times: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.023s 2. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.463s + 0.440s 3. Will Buller T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m41.688s + 0.665s 4. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.758s + 0.735s 5. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 1m41.824s + 0.801s 6. Mans Grenhagen Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m41.895s + 0.872s 7. Sven Muller Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m41.918s + 0.905s 8. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW 1m41.973s + 0.950s 9. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m41.990s + 0.967s 10. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc 1m42.059s + 1.036s 11. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m42.113s + 1.090s 12. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m42.130s + 1.107s 13. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m42.135s + 1.112s 14. Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW 1m42.136s + 1.113s 15. Tom Blomqvist EuroIntern'l Dallara-Merc 1m42.142s + 1.119s 16. Pipo Deran Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m42.208s + 1.185s 17. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW 1m42.335s + 1.312s 18. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc 1m42.356s + 1.333s 19. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m42.392s + 1.369s 20. Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc 1m42.634s + 1.611s 21. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m42.693s + 1.670s 22. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc 1m42.705s + 1.682s 23. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m42.809s + 1.786s 24. Riccardo Agostini Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m43.044s + 2.019s 25. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m43.163s + 2.140s 26. Josh Hill Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m43.224s + 2.201s 27. Dmitry Suranovich Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m43.923s + 2.909s 28. Michela Cerruti Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m44.138s + 3.115s
