Felix and Mücke Motorsport worked their way through an extensive test programme as the FIA Formula 3 European Championship weekend at the Red Bull Ring got underway with 80 minutes of free practice on Friday afternoon, although they did not receive all the answers they were looking for going into the eighth round of the season.
Despite continued threats of rain, the full duration of practice took place on a completely dry track, with Felix setting the 15th fastest time – 0.8s shy of pace-setter Antonio Giovinazzi (one out of a full five Carlin runners to feature inside the top ten).
Felix, and a host of his rivals, however, were forced to see several laps deleted due to excessive use of the tarmac run-off areas at Turns 1 and 7, rendering the results of practice somewhat misleading.
Having conducted a positive pre-event test back in Germany, Mücke Motorsport travelled to the Styrian Alps hoping to verify their findings, but had to be content with tenth as their best practice result after local hero Lucas Auer set a 1m25.983s to end up less than two tenths ahead of Felix.
Qualifying for the first race of the weekend takes place at 18.05 local time this evening.
FELIX:
“Not a great session for us. We struggled under braking and locked up too much, particularly at Turn 3. We still have a lot of work to do, but the car felt strong in the slower corners and that gives us a baseline on which to build. We have a couple of hours until qualifying and I’m confident we’ll be stronger by then.”
RESULTS
Pos. | No | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 19 | Antonio Giovinazzi / ITA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 18 | 1:25.347 | |
2 | 2 | Esteban Ocon / FRA Prema Powerteam | 21 | 1:25.441 | 00.094 |
3 | 28 | Jake Dennis / GBR Carlin | 20 | 1:25.486 | 00.139 |
4 | 5 | Jordan King / GBR Carlin | 18 | 1:25.526 | 00.179 |
5 | 30 | Max Verstappen / NED Van Amersfoort Racing | 23 | 1:25.638 | 00.291 |
6 | 31 | Tom Blomqvist / GBR Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 19 | 1:25.837 | 00.490 |
7 | 26 | Dennis van de Laar / NED Prema Powerteam | 20 | 1:25.858 | 00.511 |
8 | 25 | Antonio Fuoco / ITA Prema Powerteam | 22 | 1:25.877 | 00.530 |
9 | 6 | Edward Jones / UAE Carlin | 20 | 1:25.962 | 00.615 |
10 | 3 | Lucas Auer / AUT kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 18 | 1:25.983 | 00.636 |
11 | 4 | Roy Nissany / ISR kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 17 | 1:26.051 | 00.704 |
12 | 16 | Gustavo Menezes / USA Van Amersfoort Racing | 24 | 1:26.102 | 00.755 |
13 | 21 | Félix Serrallés / USA Team West-TecF3 | 21 | 1:26.112 | 00.765 |
14 | 20 | Sean Gelael / INA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 20 | 1:26.141 | 00.794 |
15 | 27 | Felix Rosenqvist / SWE kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 19 | 1:26.147 | 00.800 |
16 | 1 | Nicholas Latifi / CAN Prema Powerteam | 20 | 1:26.189 | 00.842 |
17 | 18 | Tatiana Calderón / COL Jo Zeller Racing | 19 | 1:26.313 | 00.966 |
18 | 29 | Santino Ferrucci / USA Eurointernational | 18 | 1:26.421 | 01.074 |
19 | 15 | Jules Szymkowiak / NED Van Amersfoort Racing | 22 | 1:26.459 | 01.112 |
20 | 11 | Richard Goddard / AUS ThreeBond with T-Sport | 24 | 1:26.481 | 01.134 |
21 | 12 | Alexander Toril / ESP ThreeBond with T-Sport | 20 | 1:26.610 | 01.263 |
22 | 9 | Alfonso Celis / MEX Fortec Motorsports | 18 | 1:26.943 | 01.596 |
23 | 22 | Hector Hurst / GBR Team West-TecF3 | 20 | 1:26.952 | 01.605 |
24 | 8 | Michele Beretta / ITA Eurointernational | 19 | 1:27.171 | 01.824 |
25 | 17 | Sandro Zeller / SUI Jo Zeller Racing | 12 | 1:27.273 | 01.926 |
26 | 10 | John Bryant-Meisner / SWE Fortec Motorsports | 19 | 1:27.457 | 02.110 |