Barcelona F3: Prema’s Hauger leads practice as 2021 season begins

The Red Bull junior, who joined the reigning champion from Hitech Grand Prix for 2021, led the field with a time of 1m33.596s on Friday morning at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

He was followed by rookie Victor Martins, one of the two Alpine Academy members driving for MP Motorsport, who set a time of 1m33.811s, and ART GP’s Frederik Vesti, who has joined the Mercedes academy, with a 1m33.871s.

Hauger’s team-mate Arthur Leclerc, a Ferrari Driver Academy member and younger brother of Formula 1 driver Charles, came fourth with a 1m33.923s.

ART GP’s Alexander Smolyar finished off the top five, with the Russian driver, who is returning for a second year in F3, setting a time of 1m33.934s.

Just 12 minutes into the season opener, the practice session was red-flagged after Carlin’s Jonny Edgar encountered issues, briefly stopping on the track before managing to get the car going again and heading back to the pits.

It was restarted a few minutes later, with Carlin’s Ido Cohen setting a 1m35.163s to kick off the timed laps, before nine other drivers set times in quick succession.

Prema led the pack in a 1-2-3 halfway through the session, but was quickly caught by Martins and Vesti – both tipped as early favourites for the drivers’ championship title.

Highest placed returning driver Logan Sargeant, who has switched from Prema to Charouz Racing System for this season, came seventh, with a time of 1m34.129s.

Juan Manuel Correa, returning to the sport 18 months after surviving a tragic multiple car Formula 2 crash at Spa in 2019 that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert, set a quickest time of 1m35.102s, placing him 23rd.

Following the session, ART Grand Prix was fined €500 for an unsafe release of Smolyar, and Charouz driver Enzo Fittipaldi was fined €700 for speeding in the pitlane.

This afternoon’s qualifying will set the grid for Sunday’s race, while Saturday’s first race will be decided by reversing the top 12.

The top 12 of that race will be reversed for the second race on Saturday afternoon.

Results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	13	1'33.596
2	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	13	1'33.811	0.215
3	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	11	1'33.871	0.275
4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	13	1'33.923	0.327
5	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	12	1'33.934	0.338
6	Clement Novalak	Trident	8	1'34.089	0.493
7	Logan Sargeant	Charouz Racing System	12	1'34.129	0.533
8	Jack Doohan	Trident	8	1'34.151	0.555
9	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	13	1'34.166	0.570
10	Olli Caldwell	Prema Powerteam	13	1'34.235	0.639
11	Roman Staněk	HitechGP	15	1'34.283	0.687
12	Matteo Nannini	HWA AG	11	1'34.324	0.728
13	David Schumacher	Trident	8	1'34.383	0.787
14	Ayumu Iwasa	HitechGP	14	1'34.409	0.813
15	Amaury Cordeel	Campos Racing	14	1'34.415	0.819
16	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	12	1'34.459	0.863
17	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	15	1'34.481	0.885
18	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA AG	12	1'34.524	0.928
19	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	13	1'34.569	0.973
20	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos Racing	13	1'34.620	1.024
21	Jak Crawford	HitechGP	13	1'34.783	1.187
22	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	16	1'35.079	1.483
23	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	13	1'35.102	1.506
24	Rafael Villagómez	HWA AG	10	1'35.130	1.534
25	Ido Cohen	Carlin	17	1'35.163	1.567
26	Reshad de	Charouz Racing System	12	1'35.355	1.759
27	László Tóth	Campos Racing	18	1'35.466	1.870
28	Tijmen van	MP Motorsport	12	1'35.575	1.979
29	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Jenzer Motorsport	14	1'35.701	2.105
30	Filip Ugran	Jenzer Motorsport	16	1'35.818	2.222
View full results