Mercedes F1 protege George Russell leads GP3 testing at Hungaroring

Russell, who is currently sixth in the GP3 drivers' championship standings after the opening round of the season at Barcelona last month, topped the times with a 1m32.159s, which was set late on during the morning running as he traded fastest times with Dorian Boccolacci.

The day ended up finishing an hour later than scheduled as the teams were forced to wait for the Budapest track's medical set-up to be operational before the morning session could get underway.

Trident driver and 2016 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup runner-up Boccolacci ended the day second fastest after improving his best time to 1m32.436s during the afternoon.

That was 0.277s slower than Russell - who also topped the second session - had gone during the morning.

Double Barcelona podium finisher Alessio Lorandi finished third fastest overall, ahead of Renault F1 academy member Jack Aitken and Santino Ferrucci.

Spain sprint race winner Arjun Maini, who like Ferrucci is a Haas F1 development driver, finished sixth, ahead of championship leader and Barcelona race one winner, Nirei Fukuzumi.

Raoul Hyman was eighth fastest, while Marcos Siebert and Kevin Jorg rounded out the top 10 for Campos Racing and Trident respectively.

Although the delayed morning session passed without incident, the afternoon running was disrupted twice as DAMS driver Bruno Baptista and Campos's Julien Falchero stopped out on the circuit and brought out the red flags.

The two-day test at the Hungarian Grand Prix venue concludes on Wednesday.

MORNING TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1m32.159s	-	31
2	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1m32.654s	0.495s	28
3	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1m32.680s	0.521s	22
4	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1m32.765s	0.606s	30
5	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1m32.811s	0.652s	34
6	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1m32.864s	0.705s	32
7	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1m32.913s	0.754s	31
8	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1m33.014s	0.855s	33
9	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1m33.056s	0.897s	20
10	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1m33.273s	1.114s	30
11	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1m33.303s	1.144s	26
12	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1m33.352s	1.193s	24
13	Kevin Jorg	Trident	1m33.384s	1.225s	32
14	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1m33.694s	1.535s	24
15	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1m33.721s	1.562s	32
16	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1m33.876s	1.717s	26
17	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1m34.099s	1.940s	32
18	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1m34.388s	2.229s	22
19	Niko Kari	Arden International	1m34.609s	2.450s	20

AFTERNOON TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1m32.332s	-	46
2	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1m32.436s	0.104s	50
3	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1m32.459s	0.127s	40
4	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1m32.547s	0.215s	46
5	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1m32.696s	0.364s	38
6	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1m32.724s	0.392s	37
7	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1m32.728s	0.396s	45
8	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1m32.997s	0.665s	37
9	Kevin Jorg	Trident	1m33.019s	0.687s	38
10	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1m33.s	0.s	49
11	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1m33.075s	0.743s	34
12	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1m33.075s	0.743s	31
13	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1m33.275s	0.943s	41
14	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1m33.301s	0.969s	37
15	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1m33.320s	0.988s	37
16	Niko Kari	Arden International	1m33.321s	0.989s	37
17	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1m33.462s	1.130s	34
18	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1m33.837s	1.505s	33
19	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1m35.680s	3.348s	23

comments

Mercedes F1 protege George Russell leads GP3 testing at Hungaroring

Mercedes Formula 1 junior driver George Russell topped the first day of the in-season GP3 test at the Hungaroring for ART Grand Prix