Breaking news

FIA F3 Valencia Test

Lundgaard leads ART 1-2 on first day of F3 testing

Renault Formula 1 junior Christian Lundgaard topped the first day of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing at Valencia.

Jack Benyon

Edited: Oct 22, 2019, 8:22 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Christian Lundgaard, ART Grand Prix

Lundgaard – who finished sixth in the F3 standings this season for ART Grand Prix – remains with the same team for the test.

It rained early in the morning session, but the teams were still able to net significant mileage on the first day of the three-day test, which concludes on Tuesday.

Lirim Zendeli set the fastest time in the morning session once the rain dissipated, having switched from the Sauber Junior Team he competed with in FIA F3 this season to Jenzer Motorsport, but the times tumbled in the afternoon as the track rubbered-in following the downpour.

Lundgaard was the first driver to dip below the 1m22s with just over an hour remaining, and most drivers set their best times in the afternoon session.

Zendeli once again went top in the last hour, but Lundgaard soon pounced to head Sebastian Fernandez by just over two tenths.

Fernandez was impressive throughout Sunday, having left Campos Racing to join Lundgaard at ART in a strong showing for the French team.

Alexander Smolyar was the top true rookie, the SMP Racing-backed Russian taking second in the morning session before a late leap in the afternoon meant he rounded out the top three in the times for the Sauber Junior Team.

Zendeli was relegated to fourth in the final hour, ahead of Alessio Lorandi, who missed this season through injury but came back to test with Trident, with which he raced for in F2 and F3 in 2018.

Lornadi’s teammate Devlin DeFrancesco was just behind, as the rest of the top 10 also cracked the 1m22s barrier.

Red Bull and Honda junior Yuki Tsunoda switched from Jenzer to Hitech Grand Prix for the test and wound up seventh, ahead of FIA F3 rookie Ferdinand Habsburg, who finished last in the DTM standings this year.

Dan Ticktum – who will race with Carlin at Macau and is targeting an F2 seat next year – took ninth, having finished third in the morning session, ahead of the first car of FIA F3 teams’ champions Prema, driven by ex-Carlin man Logan Sargeant.

While most drivers got more than 30 laps in the afternoon, Billy Monger was only able to net 10 laps after the lunch break on his way to 28th place. It was Monger’s first experience of the FIA F3 car on track.

Read Also:

Test results:

Pos. Driver Entrant Time Gap 1 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix 1'21.370 2 Sebastian Fernandez ART Grand Prix 1'21.599 0.229 3 Alexander Smolyar Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1'21.613 0.243 4 Lirim Zendeli Jenzer Motorsport 1'21.685 0.315 5 Alessio Lorandi Trident 1'21.776 0.406 6 Devlin Defrancesco Trident 1'21.819 0.449 7 Yuki Tsunoda Hitech Grand Prix 1'21.858 0.488 8 Ferdinand Habsburg ART Grand Prix 1'21.867 0.497 9 Dan Ticktum Carlin Buzz Racing 1'21.914 0.544 10 Logan Sargeant Prema Racing 1'21.992 0.622 11 Linus Lundqvist HWA Racelab 1'22.011 0.641 12 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 1'22.105 0.735 13 Oscar Piastri Prema Racing 1'22.122 0.752 14 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab 1'22.177 0.807 15 Lorenzo Colombo MP Motorsport 1'22.315 0.945 16 Jonathan Hoggard Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1'22.420 1.050 17 David Beckmann Trident 1'22.428 1.058 18 Jack Doohan Hitech Grand Prix 1'22.435 1.065 19 Max Fewtrell Hitech Grand Prix 1'22.443 1.073 20 Lukas Dunner MP Motorsport 1'22.492 1.122 21 Yu Kanamaru Campos Racing 1'22.565 1.195 22 Theo Pourchaire Carlin Buzz Racing 1'22.576 1.206 23 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport 1'22.591 1.221 24 Fabio Scherer HWA Racelab 1'22.670 1.300 25 Enaam Ahmed Prema Racing 1'22.927 1.557 26 Calan Williams Jenzer Motorsport 1'22.993 1.623 27 David Vidales Campos Racing 1'23.164 1.794 28 Billy Monger Carlin Buzz Racing 1'23.507 2.137 29 Joao Vieira Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1'23.542 2.172 30 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing 1'24.218 2.848

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Monger, Ticktum on FIA F3 test entry list

Next article Lundgaard stays on top in Valencia F3 test

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 9 min

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Formula 1

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

How Qatar red flag helped Johann Zarco put Barcelona crash behind him

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

47 min

How Qatar red flag helped Johann Zarco put Barcelona crash behind him

McLaren to upgrade MCL40 car at its bogey F1 track Las Vegas

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Las Vegas GP

1 h

McLaren to upgrade MCL40 car at its bogey F1 track Las Vegas

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts