GP3 – Fukuzumi leads first day in Barcelona

The morning session was unexpectedly cold and wet, with no meaningful running for the first half of the session. It was only around the second hour that drivers were switching to slicks and setting competitive times: with Fukuzumi led the way, swapping the top spot with Niko Kari and Santino Ferrucci before reclaiming P1 until just with ten minutes to go Maini grabbed the top spot by half a second, and then went even quicker with 5 minutes remaining to top the session on 1:34.163, ahead of Kari and Ferrucci.

The sun returned over the lunch break to give the field markedly better conditions to run, but the session was marred by a number of red flag periods: at 30 minutes Kari stopped with a mechanical gremlin at turn 4, on the hour Leonardo Pulcini pulled up at turn 6, twenty minutes later Dorian Boccolacci stopped at turn 10, and finally with fifty minutes remaining George Russell ground to a halt at turn 12. Pulcini and Boccolacci were found to be underweight on their return to the pits, and as such their times for the session were deleted.

Between the stoppages the ART quartet were battling for the top spot, with Russell setting the first competitive time before Fukuzumi grabbed it at around the one hour mark, and despite many challengers the Japanese driver held on from Hubert, with Maini pipping Russell for P3 in the final few minutes of the session.

Battle recommences tomorrow for the final day of the Barcelona test, with two sessions running from 09:00 local time until 12:00 and from 13:00 until closing at 16:00.