Drivers put in the final preparations ahead of the 2017 GP3 season in the final pre-season test at Valencia.
The test was the last two of six days spent during spring to fine-tune the Dallara chassis’ and the use of the DRS system.
Some drivers continued where they left off in the second test in Barcelona, similar results emerging as stories unfolded.
Boccolacci with fastest time… again
For the second test in succession, Trident’s Dorian Boccolacci set the fastest time of the four sessions.
Boccolacci set a time of 1m21.191s on the first morning. The French driver’s time was just 0.042 seconds faster than Leonardo Pulcini and Jack Aitken’s times from the second morning, with Alessio Lorandi fourth fastest overall.
ART’s George Russell set the fifth-best time in the same session as Boccolacci.
Boccolacci is the first driver since Daniel Abt in late 2011 (Valencia, Jerez) to set the fastest time in two straight tests. His time was 0.285s faster than 2016’s best set by Matt Parry, but 0.331s adrift of the best-ever time by Alex Palou two years ago.
Russell and ART with most laps
Old habits also remained for Russell in the final test, again completing the most laps of any driver.
The Brit managed to accrue 193 laps of the circuit, five more than team-mate Anthoine Hubert. Boccolacci completed the third-most – 185 – the same total as Nirei Fukuzumi.
Campos’ Raoul Hyman set the most laps in one day – 65 – during the final afternoon.
With four of its drivers in the top-five of laps set, ART again led the way in completing the most laps of any team.
The French outfit completed 749, 24.15% of the overall 3102 laps, managing over 100 more than rivals Trident (646, 20.82%), the two teams with four drivers representing it.
Arden finished the test with 487 (15.7%), 16 more than Campos (471, 15.18%) and 18 more than DAMS (469, 15.12%). Jenzer, the only team with just two drivers during these sessions, finished with the least amount – 280, 9.03%.
ART also had the most laps during one session, managing 211 in the afternoon of the first day.
Boccolacci stands out in team-mate rivalry
Analysing each of the best fastest lap times set by each driver, Boccolacci stood out as a driver finding more than his fellow Trident drivers on track for the second test in succession.
He had an average advantage of 0.853s over Ryan Tveter, 2.717s ahead of Giuliano Alesi and 4.191s over Kevin Joerg. All of these are affected by huge swings of time during the afternoon sessions when Boccolacci lapped within the 1m21s during sessions where drivers focused on long runs.
Boccolacci was one of just three drivers to be above his team-mates during each session of the tests, alongside DAMS’ Santino Ferrucci and Lorandi.
Ferrucci had an average gap of 0.677s and 0.857s ahead of Tatiana Calderon and Bruno Baptista, who often found themselves in the bottom two places of the timesheets. Lorandi has a maiden of 0.408s over team-mate Arjun Maini.
The two tightest gaps are at ART and Arden, with averages of 0.280s and 0.350s separating its fastest and slowest driver’s best times.
The eighth season of the GP3 Series begins with the first round at Barcelona on May 12-14.
One test remains during the season, with drivers going to the Hungaroring on June 6-7 for the only in-season sessions.
