Estoril GP3 test: Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco fastest for Carlin

The GP3 newcomer, fifth in last year's Formula 3 European Championship, edged out ART's Marvin Kirchhofer and Arden's Emil Bernstorff on the timesheets, the trio split by just 0.023 seconds with laps set during the afternoon session.

Overnight rain led to a slow start to the morning while the circuit dried, with the hour before lunch providing the only meaningful running.

With 10 minutes remaining, Trident's Oscar Tunjo went fastest with a 1m29.061s. It remained the morning's best, ahead of Alex Fontana, Luca Ghiotto, newly-confirmed Carlin recruit Jann Mardenborough, Jimmy Eriksson and Esteban Ocon.

Fuoco was 15th of the 23 runners in the first session, but was the first to break into the 1m29s bracket in the afternoon, and after Mardenborough led the field into the 1m28s, Fuoco set what would ultimately be the day's benchmark, a 1m28.410s midway through the session.

Following a late red flag, the sixth of the day, Kirchhofer pipped Bernstorff for second, while Ghiotto, Mardenborough and Ocon again featured in the top six.

Testing continues on Thursday, ahead of the season opener at Barcelona in May.

MORNING TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Oscar Tunjo	Trident	1m29.061s	-	19
2	Alex Fontana	Status Grand Prix	1m29.450s	0.389s	13
3	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	1m29.577s	0.516s	29
4	Jann Mardenborough	Carlin	1m29.680s	0.619s	14
5	Jimmy Eriksson	Koiranen GP	1m29.798s	0.737s	9
6	Esteban Ocon	ART Grand Prix	1m29.805s	0.744s	13
7	Mitch Gilbert	Carlin	1m29.926s	0.865s	11
8	Emil Bernstorff	Arden International	1m29.959s	0.898s	12
9	Ralph Boschung	Jenzer Motorsport	1m30.000s	0.939s	12
10	Marvin Kirchhofer	ART Grand Prix	1m30.018s	0.957s	14
11	Kevin Ceccon	Arden International	1m30.137s	1.076s	12
12	Matt Parry	Koiranen GP	1m30.400s	1.339s	14
13	Alfonso Celis	ART Grand Prix	1m30.425s	1.364s	15
14	Matheo Tuscher	Jenzer Motorsport	1m30.575s	1.514s	13
15	Antonio Fuoco	Carlin	1m30.621s	1.560s	14
16	Adderly Fong	Koiranen GP	1m30.660s	1.599s	18
17	Pal Varhaug	Jenzer Motorsport	1m30.678s	1.617s	23
18	Seb Morris	Status Grand Prix	1m30.742s	1.681s	10
19	Alex Palou	Campos Racing	1m30.967s	1.906s	22
20	Artur Janosz	Trident	1m31.607s	2.546s	25
21	Sandy Stuvik	Status Grand Prix	1m31.769s	2.708s	11
22	Zaid Ashkanani	Campos Racing	1m32.381s	3.320s	21
23	Alex Bosak	Arden International	1m32.787s	3.726s	11

AFTERNOON TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Antonio Fuoco	Carlin	1m28.410s	-	36
2	Marvin Kirchhofer	ART Grand Prix	1m28.411s	0.001s	35
3	Emil Bernstorff	Arden International	1m28.433s	0.023s	30
4	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	1m28.516s	0.106s	26
5	Jann Mardenborough	Carlin	1m28.595s	0.185s	35
6	Esteban Ocon	ART Grand Prix	1m28.626s	0.216s	31
7	Ralph Boschung	Jenzer Motorsport	1m28.638s	0.228s	34
8	Jimmy Eriksson	Koiranen GP	1m28.773s	0.363s	26
9	Oscar Tunjo	Trident	1m28.994s	0.584s	32
10	Matheo Tuscher	Jenzer Motorsport	1m29.001s	0.591s	37
11	Seb Morris	Status Grand Prix	1m29.015s	0.605s	37
12	Mitch Gilbert	Carlin	1m29.169s	0.759s	20
13	Alex Palou	Campos Racing	1m29.304s	0.894s	35
14	Alex Fontana	Status Grand Prix	1m29.465s	1.055s	46
15	Matt Parry	Koiranen GP	1m29.477s	1.067s	31
16	Kevin Ceccon	Arden International	1m29.599s	1.189s	30
17	Alfonso Celis	ART Grand Prix	1m29.860s	1.450s	33
18	Pal Varhaug	Jenzer Motorsport	1m30.017s	1.607s	23
19	Sandy Stuvik	Status Grand Prix	1m30.207s	1.797s	32
20	Artur Janosz	Trident	1m30.393s	1.983s	31
21	Adderly Fong	Koiranen GP	1m30.448s	2.038s	24
22	Zaid Ashkanani	Campos Racing	1m31.879s	3.469s	20
23	Alex Bosak	Arden International	1m33.201s	4.791s	29