GP3 Paul Ricard test: ART's Hubert leads another ART 1-2 on day two

The ART Grand Prix pair set the best times of the day during Thursday's morning running, while Campos Racing's Leonardo Pulcini ended up third quickest.

On an overcast day at the southern French circuit, Hubert and Ilott traded top spot early on with their ART team-mate Nikita Mazepin, with Trident's Alessio Lorandi also spending time at the head of the standings.

Teams concentrated on long runs midway through the morning, but after that Hubert put in a time of 1m48.674s with 40 minutes of the session remaining.

That pushed Ilott down to second, and he wound up 0.087 seconds adrift of his team-mate - who finished fourth in the 2017 GP3 standings for ART.

Pulcini slotted in a late effort of 1m49.051s to take third. The best times from the morning remained unbeaten during the afternoon, with only Pedro Piquet and David Beckmann improving.

The field took a while to emerge from the pits after the lunch break and light rain prevented any fast times from being posted late-on.

Force India development driver Mazepin - who will drive for the F1 team in the first pre-season test next week - ended the day fourth fastest, ahead of Tatiana Calderon (Jenzer Motorsport) and fourth ART driver Jake Hughes, who set the fastest time on day one for ART.

Lorandi ended up seventh, with Simo Laaksonen, Piquet - who is yet to announce a deal to race in GP3 for 2018 - and Dorian Boccolacci rounding out the top 10 for Campos, Trident and MP Motorsport respectively.

Julien Falchero finished the day with the 11th fastest time, in front of former Red Bull junior and GP3 race winner Niko Kari.

Another Ferrari Academy driver, Giuliano Alesi, was 13th for Trident, with his team-mate Ryan Tveter 14th and Jenzer's Juan Manuel Correa 15th.

Beckmann ended the day in 16th after moving up from 18th in the morning.

The next GP3 test takes place at the Jerez circuit on 14-15 March.