Campos Racing’s Théophile Nael finished with the fastest lap on the final day of the Barcelona pre-season test, completing a 1:27.525 in the morning session when times were at their quickest.
In the afternoon, it was Gerrard Xie who ended up at the top of the leaderboard with a 1:29.676 for DAMS Lucas Oil.
MORNING
Similar to Day 2, the teams started with Qualifying runs on old Hard tyres, but before the first set of laps could be completed, the Red Flags were out with James Wharton stuck in gravel between Turns 7 and 8.
However, once the PREMA Racing driver was back in the pitlane, action resumed and Patrick Heuzenroeder went fastest with a 1:29.354.
The drivers then had new tyres fitted to their cars for their next set of laps, and this time it was Noah Stromsted on top by just 0.034s to Campos Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu, with a 1:27.620.
Ugochukwu improved on his next attempt, but still wound up in second place, cutting the gap to the TRIDENT driver to just 0.020s, while teammate Théophile Nael moved up to third ahead of Freddie Slater.
With the majority of the field back in the pitlane, Nael returned to the track for more shot at a Qualifying lap and completed a 1:27.525 to go fastest by just 0.095s.
The teams then turned their attentions to long run performance, meaning that no one bettered Nael, who led the way ahead of Stromsted, Ugochukwu, Slater and Brando Badoer in the morning.
AFTERNOON
Long runs kicked off the afternoon session with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Deligny setting the early pace with a 1:32.430.
That time was then beaten by Rodin Motorsport’s Brando Badoer as the session approached the 40-minute mark, and just before José Garfias stopped on track at Turn 6, bringing out the Red Flags.
Once the session resumed, AIX Racing went to the top of the leaderboard, with Brad Benavides’ 1:31.573 putting him ahead of Fernando Barrichello by 0.115s.
Running was paused once again just as the second hour was about to start, with Slater having stopped on track at Turn 12, causing the marshals to wave the Red Flags.
Race runs resumed as the drivers looked to make the most of the track time before the test ended. However, Fionn McLaughlin then got stuck in the gravel trap at the final corner, leading to another Red Flag stoppage.
Green flags were waved with over an hour to go in the day, with long run mileage still the top priority. However, heading into the final 30 minutes, Brando Badoer and then Matteo De Palo went quickest.
The TRIDENT driver completed a 1:30.910, which was over half a second quicker than Hitech’s Tim Tramnitz.
DAMS Lucas Oil then went faster with just over five minutes to go, Nicola Lacorte leading the way with a 1:29.676, over half a second faster than teammate Gerrard Xie.
There were no further improvements for the rest of the session, with Lacorte on top ahead of Xie, De Palo, Tramnitz and Badoer.
That wraps up pre-season testing with the drivers next out on track at Round 1 in Melbourne from March 6-8.
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