Posted on 18th April 2017
The 2017 GP3 Series season restarts tomorrow for the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. All of the teams and drivers will use the 2 day test to continue preparations for the opening race of the season, at the same circuit on 12th-14th May 2017.
The first test of the season was at the Circuito de Estoril on 22nd-23rd March 2017, which saw a number of drivers share the honours over the two days. Newcomer Raoul Hyman signed for the test with Campos Racing and set the ground running, topping the first day's morning session as the only driver on slick tyres during a rain affected session; easily ahead of Niko Kari and Santino Ferrucci.
The afternoon session saw the sun return, and with it George Russell put his ART car on the top of the timesheets with a 1:27.606, just ahead of teammate Nirei Fukuzumi and the morning's leader Hyman, with the Brit easily topping the day's running.
The Briton topped the next morning's session, once again heavily affected by rain, to lead out teammate Anthoine Hubert and Alessio Lorandi at Jenzer, while the afternoon's session was again grabbed by an ART driver, this time Jack Aitken in mixed conditions, meaning Russell topped the session with his first afternoon's time.
The teams will be hoping for better weather to allow them to have a more useful test in Barcelona, and will once again have access to the new for 2017 Drag Reduction System (DRS), albeit restricted to use only within the 2 nominated DRS zones, as is usual in FIA Formula 2 and F1. As usual all drivers will be allowed 7 sets of Pirelli's medium compound for the test, and 3 sets of wets.
The sessions will start each day at 09:00am local time and run until 12:00: on Wednesday the afternoon session will run from 14:00pm to 17:00pm, while on Thursday this will be pushed forward an hour to 13:00pm before closing at 16:00pm.
GP3 Series – Estoril Test Session: Drivers' Entry List
ART Grand Prix
1. Jack Aitken
2. Nirei Fukuzumi
3. George Russell
4. Anthoine Hubert
Arden International
5. Niko Kari
6. Leonardo Pulcini
7. Steijn Schothurst
Trident
8. Kevin Joerg
9. Giuliano Alesi
10. Ryan Tveter
11. Dorian Boccolacci
DAMS
14. Santino Ferrucci
15. Tatiana Calderón
16. Bruno Baptista
Jenzer Motorsport
22. Alessio Lorandi
24. Arjun Maini
Campos Racing
26. Julien Falchero
27. Raoul Hyman
28. Marcos Seibert
Picture supplied by the GP3 Series
Keep your eyes peeled at Driving For Pleasure as we will be covering the both days of the second pre-season GP3 test at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona with our report tomorrow alongside the latest GP3 news.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
