ART Grand Prix’s George Russell has gone fastest in both morning and afternoon sessions in the final day of GP3 post-season testing at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
The British driver set a lap time of 1m55.364s in the morning to lead by 0.543s over Trident’s Santino Ferrucci and Jenzer’s Alessio Lorandi.
Arden International’s Max Defourny and Leonardo Pulcini were fourth and fifth ahead of DAMS’ Jack Aitken.
ART’s Arjun Maini, Jenzer’s Steijn Schothorst, Arden’s Kevin Joerg and Trident’s Marcos Siebert completed the top ten.
The top ten were separated by 1.155s, with the whole grid being covered by 2.006s. Julian Falchero finished in 22nd and last. Only 22 cars were classified in the opening session after Trident’s Raoul Hyman was disqualified for having an underweight car.
Two red flags emerged in the opening session of the day as Schothorst stopped at Turn 19 and ART’s Anthoine Hubert crashed at Turn 7, producing significant damage to the TecPro barriers. The second incident delayed the session as the barriers needed repairs.
Russell and Lorandi remained in the top three in the afternoon, with Pulcini moving into third. The ART driver set a significantly slower 1m55.759s to lead by 0.369s.
Maini jumped into fourth in the order ahead of Ferrucci, Trident’s Giuliano Alesi and Aitken. Koiranen GP’s Robert Shwartzman, Campos Racing’s Alex Palou and DAMS’ Bruno Baptista moved into the top ten.
The top ten were now covered by 0.770s, with the whole grid being separated by just 1.321s. Jenzer’s Tatiana Calderon finished 22nd and last, with Hubert not setting a time in the afternoon because his monocoque was damaged from his earlier incident.
There were another two red flags in the later session. The first was provoked by debris in two positions on thetrack, while Joerg came to a halt at Turn 20.
These sessions conclude post-season testing and are the last tests for the GP3 Series until the series prepares for the 2017 season next spring.
