GP3 Barcelona: Honda junior Nirei Fukuzumi tops free practice
Nirei Fukuzumi topped the practice session for the first round of the 2017 GP3 season, which is taking place at Barcelona this weekend
Fukuzumi - a Honda Formula 1 junior driver - set a best time of 1m35.933s and led an ART Grand Prix 1-2-3-4 for much of practice.
But Jenzer Motorsport's Arjun Maini, who this week joined the Haas F1 team in a development role, improved in the closing stages of the 45-minute session to go second, 0.3s slower than Fukuzumi.
Marcos Siebert, who beat Mick Schumacher to the 2016 Italian Formula 4 title, slotted into third place on his first appearance in a GP3 race weekend.
Arden's Leonardo Pulcini was another driver to move up the order late on and he finished fourth ahead of Mercedes F1 junior George Russell and his ART team-mate Jack Aitken - a Renault F1 Academy driver.
Fukuzumi led ART's charge to the top of the timesheets early in the session and he stayed clear despite the late improvements from Maini, Siebert and Pulcini.
Niko Kari ended up seventh for Arden, ahead of Ryan Tveter, Steijn Schothorst and Raoul Hyman, who rounded out the top 10 for Campos Racing.
Santino Ferrucci was 11th, just in front of Anthoine Hubert and Kevin Joerg.
Giuliano Alesi - son of former F1 race winner Jean - needed a push from his Trident mechanics in the pitlane as he rejoined the action shortly after halfway through the session on his way to 15th.
Sauber F1 development driver Tatiana Calderon finished 18th for DAMS.
FREE PRACTICE TIMES
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nirei Fukuzumi | ART Grand Prix | 1m35.933s | - | 17 |
2 | Arjun Maini | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m36.286s | 0.353s | 20 |
3 | Marcos Siebert | Campos Racing | 1m36.293s | 0.360s | 18 |
4 | Leonardo Pulcini | Arden International | 1m36.352s | 0.419s | 17 |
5 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.382s | 0.449s | 17 |
6 | Jack Aitken | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.386s | 0.453s | 17 |
7 | Niko Kari | Arden International | 1m36.431s | 0.498s | 17 |
8 | Ryan Tveter | Trident | 1m36.441s | 0.508s | 14 |
9 | Steijn Schothorst | Arden International | 1m36.455s | 0.522s | 17 |
10 | Raoul Hyman | Campos Racing | 1m36.517s | 0.584s | 21 |
11 | Santino Ferrucci | DAMS | 1m36.521s | 0.588s | 18 |
12 | Anthoine Hubert | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.619s | 0.686s | 18 |
13 | Kevin Jorg | Trident | 1m36.669s | 0.736s | 16 |
14 | Bruno Baptista | DAMS | 1m37.047s | 1.114s | 17 |
15 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1m37.254s | 1.321s | 14 |
16 | Dorian Boccolacci | Trident | 1m37.488s | 1.555s | 18 |
17 | Julien Falchero | Campos Racing | 1m37.570s | 1.637s | 20 |
18 | Tatiana Calderon | DAMS | 1m37.606s | 1.673s | 19 |
19 | Alessio Lorandi | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m38.227s | 2.294s | 16 |
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