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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

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