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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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