Formula 3 was in Bahrain for the last three days of testing to prepare their season. With the next race being at Sakhir, it gave the inexperienced drivers a taste of the circuit. Here’s a little recap of those tests.
Despite their first race in Australia, Formula 3 was back in Bahrain for a three-day test. The next race will be held at the very same place, in two weeks. These tests were a great means for the new drivers to get some training, and for the experienced ones in Formula 3 to understand their new car better. A new driver also made his first appearance. As one seat in AIX Racing remains empty, Freddie Slater, a promising driver previously announced to be racing in GB3 and FRECA this year, replaced Nikita Bedrin. The Russian driving under Italian colors initially drove with the team only for the Australian Grand Prix.
Top 2 for both sessions
Nikola Tsolov and Tuukka Taponen dominated the first day, leading the charts in both sessions. The Campos driver was first in the morning with a 1:49.336 time. With no risk of rain compared to the previous testing days in Barcelona, the session was calm, only testing different setups on the car. Christian Ho was the driver with the most laps completed, with 26 laps on his counter.
Same thing happened in the afternoon. Trident was eager to be back on track as all three drivers topped the charts at the beginning of the session. Eventually, Tsolov, Taponen and Boy took the first three spots. The session was stopped four minutes earlier due to Alessandro Giusti stopping on track, which brought out the red flag.
No incidents on track
The second day was off to a quick start with the fastest time changing hands several times early on. As the hour mark approached, Louis Sharp rocketed to the top of the timesheets, beating Mari Boya’s lap by just 0.330s, thanks to his 1:48.703. There were no further changes at the top of the timesheets, as the teams ran on their used tyres. Tim Tramnitz and Bruno del Pino’s 40 laps were the most in the morning session.
Tim Tramnitz went fastest for most of the session until the final hour, where Gerrard Xie led the way with a 1:49.416. But there were more changes to come at the top as the day entered into its final 10 minutes, with the benchmark dropping to 1:48. Several drivers were able to improve their times later on, but Boya remained untouched with a 1:48.640, sealing the first place by 0.282s ahead of Sharp, with Wharton in third for ART Grand Prix.
Winner comes first
Rafael Câmara proved to be the driver to beat on the final day of running by setting the fastest time of the week in the process, in 1:48.252. After some changes in the timesheet and a brief stint in the pit lane, the teams turned their attention to race simulations for the rest of the session.
Long runs were once again the focus of the teams’ attention in the last session of the test. Martinius Stenshorne set an early benchmark time in 1:50.707, and he was closely followed by his Hitech TGR teammates Joshua Dufek and Gerrard Xie. With less than an hour to go, there was a first change in the lead, as ART Grand Prix driver Laurens van Hoepen went fastest with a 1:50.421. The times continued to tumble as one lap pace became the focus once more. Câmara proved to be the driver on top, with a 1:48.673. Callum Voisin and his teammate Louis Sharp completed the podium of the afternoon.