Abu Dhabi GP3 test: Russell tops final day with ART Grand Prix
Britain's George Russell dominated the third and final day of the post-season GP3 Series test at Yas Marina, comfortably topping both sessions
Russell, who is strongly tipped to switch from Formula 3 to GP3 next year with ART Grand Prix and become a Mercedes Formula 1 junior, rejoined the French team after sitting out the second day of running.
The 2014 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner set the quickest time of the entire three-day test in the morning session, heading Trident runner Santino Ferrucci by 0.543 seconds.
Russell then topped the afternoon session - in which most of the improvements over the morning came from drivers lower down the overall order - to head Alessio Lorandi by 0.369s.
Italian Lorandi continued what has been a strong test, during which he has driven all three days with Jenzer Motorsport.
He narrowly trailed Haas F1 protege Ferrucci in the morning, pipping the Arden International duo of Formula Renault 2.0 ace Max Defourny and Euroformula Open champion Leonardo Pulcini to third position.
Both Defourny and Pulcini were having their first day with Arden, the Belgian having tested with ART on the first two days, and the Italian having run with his Euroformula team Campos Racing.
Jack Aitken switched from ART to DAMS for Friday and went sixth fastest in the morning, ahead of Arjun Maini (ART) and Steijn Schothorst (Jenzer).
Pulcini was competitive in the afternoon too, taking third place ahead of Maini and Ferrucci.
Giuliano Alesi, who has driven all three days with his 2016 team Trident, was the quickest of those to improve on their morning time, taking sixth in the afternoon from Aitken and Russian FR2.0 frontrunner Robert Shwartzman (Koiranen GP).
It was a tough day for European F3 race winner Anthoine Hubert, who crashed his ART car at Turn 7 in the morning, causing a 20-minute delay while the TecPro barrier was repaired.
Hubert's accident damaged the Dallara's monocoque, and he missed the afternoon session.
FRIDAY MORNING TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 1m55.364s | - | 26 |
2 | Santino Ferrucci | Trident | 1m55.907s | 0.543s | 25 |
3 | Alessio Lorandi | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m56.023s | 0.659s | 28 |
4 | Max Defourny | Arden International | 1m56.028s | 0.664s | 32 |
5 | Leonardo Pulcini | Arden International | 1m56.034s | 0.670s | 32 |
6 | Jack Aitken | DAMS | 1m56.127s | 0.763s | 28 |
7 | Arjun Maini | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.203s | 0.839s | 25 |
8 | Steijn Schothorst | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m56.319s | 0.955s | 25 |
9 | Kevin Jorg | Arden International | 1m56.364s | 1.000s | 28 |
10 | Marcos Siebert | Trident | 1m56.513s | 1.149s | 21 |
11 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1m56.642s | 1.278s | 25 |
12 | Robert Shwartzman | Koiranen GP | 1m56.645s | 1.281s | 24 |
13 | Matheus Leist | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.768s | 1.404s | 28 |
14 | Patricio O'Ward | Koiranen GP | 1m56.797s | 1.433s | 23 |
15 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 1m56.862s | 1.498s | 21 |
16 | Anthoine Hubert | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.913s | 1.549s | 12 |
17 | Matt Parry | Campos Racing | 1m56.915s | 1.551s | 27 |
18 | Bruno Baptista | DAMS | 1m56.984s | 1.620s | 27 |
19 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 1m56.992s | 1.628s | 26 |
20 | Tarun Reddy | Koiranen GP | 1m57.007s | 1.643s | 18 |
21 | Dorian Boccolacci | DAMS | 1m57.043s | 1.679s | 27 |
22 | Julien Falchero | Campos Racing | 1m57.370s | 2.006s | 30 |
FRIDAY AFTERNOON TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 1m55.759s | - | 37 |
2 | Alessio Lorandi | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m56.128s | 0.369s | 28 |
3 | Leonardo Pulcini | Arden International | 1m56.245s | 0.486s | 30 |
4 | Arjun Maini | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.336s | 0.577s | 35 |
5 | Santino Ferrucci | Trident | 1m56.359s | 0.600s | 28 |
6 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1m56.401s | 0.642s | 13 |
7 | Jack Aitken | DAMS | 1m56.416s | 0.657s | 33 |
8 | Robert Shwartzman | Koiranen GP | 1m56.434s | 0.675s | 32 |
9 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 1m56.491s | 0.732s | 34 |
10 | Bruno Baptista | DAMS | 1m56.529s | 0.770s | 34 |
11 | Matt Parry | Campos Racing | 1m56.558s | 0.799s | 21 |
12 | Max Defourny | Arden International | 1m56.564s | 0.805s | 27 |
13 | Matheus Leist | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.612s | 0.853s | 33 |
14 | Raoul Hyman | Trident | 1m56.643s | 0.884s | 26 |
15 | Steijn Schothorst | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m56.705s | 0.946s | 28 |
16 | Tarun Reddy | Koiranen GP | 1m56.812s | 1.053s | 28 |
17 | Patricio O'Ward | Koiranen GP | 1m56.916s | 1.157s | 28 |
18 | Marcos Siebert | Trident | 1m57.008s | 1.249s | 26 |
19 | Julien Falchero | Campos Racing | 1m57.019s | 1.260s | 31 |
20 | Dorian Boccolacci | DAMS | 1m57.037s | 1.278s | 35 |
21 | Kevin Jorg | Arden International | 1m57.054s | 1.295s | 17 |
22 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 1m57.080s | 1.321s | 27 |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments