GP3 Barcelona: Jenzer Motorsport's Gonda tops first session of 2016
Richard Gonda was fastest in the first GP3 practice session of 2016 at Barcelona, edging out Jenzer Motorsport team-mate Akash Nandy
In a frenetic end to the session, Slovakian Gonda turned a lap of 1m37.032s with five minutes remaining to displace Nandy.
With rain falling early, only Matt Parry and Nyck De Vries set times in a tentative start to the first competitive running with the series' new-for-2016 Dallara GP3/16 cars, with both lapping the circuit over the two-minute barrier.
It was a full 10 minutes - by which point half of the allotted time had elapsed - before anyone else attempted any meaningful running, as Koiranen's Mahaveer Raghunathan went fastest by five seconds, before improving his time by a further 2.5s.
But that activity triggered more cars to head to the circuit, with Parry and Campos' Konstantin Tereshchenko trading laps at the top of the standings before a significant shift in times.
With a host of late improvements, Gonda was the last to head to the top of the timesheets before Tereshchenko crashed at Turn 1 with two minutes remaining to bring the session to an abrupt end.
Behind the Jenzer pair, ART's McLaren Formula 1 protege Nyck de Vries ended the session third-fastest, ahead of team-mate and Ferrari Academy driver Charles Leclerc.
Tereshchenko was fifth despite his accident, with he and team-mate Alex Palou sandwiching DAMS' Santino Ferrucci, who was sixth.
Alexander Albon was eighth ahead of Jake Hughes, the pair the best-placed of the British contingent, with Artur Janosz rounding out the top 10.
FREE PRACTICE TIMES
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Richard Gonda | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m37.032s | 11 |
2 | Akash Nandy | Jenzer Motorsport | 0.170s | 12 |
3 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 0.247s | 9 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | ART Grand Prix | 0.346s | 8 |
5 | Konstantin Tereschenko | Campos Racing | 0.428s | 10 |
6 | Santino Ferrucci | DAMS | 0.449s | 9 |
7 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 0.518s | 8 |
8 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 0.522s | 8 |
9 | Jake Hughes | DAMS | 0.588s | 9 |
10 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 0.591s | 7 |
11 | Steijn Schothorst | Campos Racing | 0.659s | 9 |
12 | Ralph Boschung | Koiranen GP | 0.691s | 9 |
13 | Nirei Fukuzumi | ART Grand Prix | 0.700s | 9 |
14 | Oscar Tunjo | Jenzer Motorsport | 0.771s | 9 |
15 | Matt Parry | Koiranen GP | 0.804s | 18 |
16 | Jack Aitken | Arden International | 0.955s | 8 |
17 | Kevin Jorg | DAMS | 1.216s | 8 |
18 | Antonio Fuoco | Trident | 1.299s | 7 |
19 | Jake Dennis | Arden International | 1.392s | 6 |
20 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 1.451s | 7 |
21 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1.573s | 7 |
22 | Matevos Isaakyan | Koiranen GP | 3.071s | 6 |
23 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | Koiranen GP | 3.251s | 11 |
24 | Sandy Stuvik | Trident | 4.436s | 5 |
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