Pulcini tops day one of FIA F3 Barcelona test for Hitech GP
Leonardo Pulcini set the fastest time on the first day of the second official test for the new FIA Formula 3 Championship, as rain mixed up the leaderboard at Barcelona
Pulcini - driving for Hitech GP after racing for Campos Racing in the 2018 GP3 Series - set the day's best time at 1m33.007s, with rain falling throughout much of the afternoon running.
It followed his strong early showing at the first series test at Paul Ricard last month, where he was fourth and third over the two days respectively.
Liam Lawson, Prema Racing's Robert Shwartzman and HWA racer Jake Hughes rounded out the top four, with all three setting their best times in the morning.
Lawson, who recently switched his secondary championship for this season to Euroformula Open after the cancellation of Formula European Masters, impressed to take the day's second fastest time for MP Motorsport.
Shwartzman was another driver who was rapid straight out of the box in testing last time out at Paul Ricard, and was the fastest of the Prema drivers on the first day of action at Barcelona.
Hughes got valuable early running in Spain, after his car - which he described as 'recogniseable' compared to the GP3 Series car it replaces - missed the first day of the Paul Ricard with a sensor issue.
Carlin's Felipe Drugovich topped a host of drivers taking advantage of a drying track right at the end of the afternoon to set the fifth best time of the day.
Max Fewtrell of ART Grand Prix was second quickest in the afternoon and ended up sixth quickest overall.
Alex Peroni made sure it was two MP cars in the top seven, and finished ahead of Prema's Marcus Armstrong, with both drivers doing their best laps in the morning session.
David Beckmann took ninth for ART with a late-afternoon effort, while Formula Renault Eurocup graduate Yifei Ye rounded out the overall top 10 with his morning lap.
The drivers and teams got to work with Pirelli's hard compound tyre in the morning session, while wets were made available in anticipation of the rain.
Andreas Estner, the only driver of the 30 yet to be confirmed as official racing in F3 for this season and is testing with Jenzer Motorsport, hit the wall at Turn 8 in the morning session.
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