This Tuesday at Spa-Francorchamps, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship teams and drivers contested the last official test day of the 2017 season. Germany’s David Beckmann (Motopark, 2m31.404s) proved to be the quickest at the 7.004-kilometre long Ardennes rollercoaster that also is the venue of the Belgian Formula One GP.
Behind the German, Lando Norris (Carlin, 2m31.536s), Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam, 2m31.943s) and Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 2m32.435s) came second, third and fourth in the test that was partly hampered by torrential rain.
The Motopark driver set the fastest lap time of the day early in the morning session and neither in the morning nor in the afternoon session another driver was able to beat Beckmann.
“My car was fast right from the start what hints to a good basic setup. In the afternoon, we first of all tested wing adjustments and afterwards we tried several things that didn’t result in improvements.” He said”
“Now I’m optimistic regarding the weekend and I hope for good results.”
Beckmann’s team-mate Joel Eriksson, currently the toughest rival of championship leader Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam, 2m32.596s), wasn’t too happy about having finished fourth.
.3”We tried a lot but at least we now know the direction we have to work towards.” Günther finished fifth, followed by Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 2m32.621s), Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix, 2m32.669s), Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing, 2m32.692s), Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 2m32.727s) and Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix, 2m32.807s).
The two newcomers on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship grid had to settle for finishing outside the top 10. Max Defourny (Van Amersfoort Racing, 2m33.303s) came 16th and wasn’t exactly happy. “To be honest I had hoped for securing a slightly better result as things went really well in the private tests”
“I think we still have to work hard to be able to deliver in wet conditions.” The second newcomer, Ameya Vaidyanathan (Carlin, 2m34.511s), finished 19th on the time sheets.
“It was the first time that I was driving on the Hankook wets and I had to familiarise myself with them. Furthermore, the conditions weren’t exactly easy, today. In addition, the level in this series is really high but I like the challenge. Now I’m looking forward to contest the full second half of the 2017 FIA F3 European Championship season.”