Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Prema’s FIA Formula 3 drivers remain confident heading into the Melbourne season opener despite the recent changes at the team.

The Italian outfit enters this season without its founding Rosin family after they and other key senior figures departed over the winter, while parent company DC Racing Solutions’ financial situation has left uncertainty over its IndyCar participation.

There has been a knock-on effect for the F3 programme, with Enzo Deligny announcing he would be driving for Van Amersfoort Racing this year having previously signed with Prema.

“It was not an easy decision,” said the Frenchman. “The state of Prema was not the same as when we joined it. It wasn’t my call, but my management team opted to switch to VAR.”

Deligny’s replacement, Jose Garfias, was announced by Prema just a day later and was quick to defend his team when asked about the situation.

“The atmosphere is really great compared to other teams I’ve been with,” Garfias explained. “It’s a great team, great people and a great atmosphere and they’re all pushing to win.”

“The background noise is something that has and always will be there. There are rumours but everything inside the team seems to be going well. The focus is on performing and the better we perform the better it is for everyone else.”

Team-mates Louis Sharp and James Wharton echoed Garfias’ comments and played down any disruption, with Sharp claiming the atmosphere in the team is “as strong as it was six months ago.”

“I think the background noise isn’t nearly as big as I think a lot of people think it is,” said Sharp.

“There’s always a lot of rumours in motorsport but I think that the environment is equally as strong as it was six months ago when I joined the team. The teams ready to win, they’re fighting and giving everything so our job is to fight with them and deliver with them.”

Wharton echoed the words of support for a team he has returned to for his second season in F3, having previously spent three years with Prema across Formula 4 and Formula Regional from 2022 to ’24.

“As a driver the environment is amazing,” Wharton explained. “I don’t feel like there’s been that much of a change within our group of people.

“The engineering department and technical department hasn’t changed for us so from an atmosphere point of view nothing has changed. I feel as good as I felt six months ago. I’m happy to be here and we’re fully supporting the team.”

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Photo: Penske Entertainment / Joe Skibinski

Nikita Johnson used a first corner move to take a lead he would not give up in Indy Nxt’s season-opening race in St. Petersburg.

The 18-year-old claimed his and Cape Motorsports’ maiden victory in the championship, and it was a winning start for his team’s partnership with Ed Carpenter Racing.

There was drama pre-race as radio trouble meant Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen did not leave the pits with the rest of the field. He was able to make it out in time to join the race start, when Andretti Global’s poleman Max Taylor led the field up to racing speeds.

He covered the inside line going into the opening corner, while fellow front row starter Johnson went to the outside and had taken the lead before even reaching the apex of turn one.

The field navigated the first braking zones without issue, and HMD Motorsports’ Tymek Kucharczyk overtook Andretti’s Seb Murray and Lochie Hughes for third. Later in the lap, HMD’s Jack Beeton spun then AJ Foyt Racing’s Alessandro de Tullio drove into the rear of Andretti’s Josh Pierson, which led to a caution period.

Racing resumed on lap four of a scheduled 45, and Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe had to hold off Pierson for sixth into turn one.

Two laps later there was another caution-triggering event as Ganassi’s Carson Etter broke his front wing then drove over the top of it and into the barriers exiting turn eight.

The next restart was on lap 10, and Taylor tried reclaiming the lead around the outside of turn one but there was not enough room for him to stay alongside into turn one. Murray fought Kucharczyk twice during the lap, but could not maintain his challenge.

Everyone was setting personal best laptimes, and Taylor was mostly able to match Johnson’s pace until the next caution period when Foyt’s Nicholas Monteiro crashing out exiting turn nine on lap 17.

Murray looked to Kucharczyk’s outside approaching turn one on the lap 21 restart, and Koolen got alongside team-mate James Roe Jr on the twisty stretch between turns two and three. They rubbed wheels, then crashed, and racing was neutralised once more.

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Alexander Koreiba and Cape’s Matteo Nannini were deemed to have violated the rules of the restart and sent to the back for the next one on lap 26. This time it took two laps for Johnson to make a 0.9-second gap, with Kucharczyk a further 0.9s back, but Taylor reduced it to 0.7s as the race became a timed encounter that would mean a 42-lap distance.

Taylor set a new fastest lap on lap 33, getting within 0.45s of Johnson, but the leader responded and had a 0.86s margin after lap 35 as he lowered his own pace. The pair continued pushing, and Johnson took the fastest lap next time by. He was now 0.971s ahead, and while Taylor did respond by lowering his own pace, both did on lap 38 and Johnson broke a second clear with another fastest lap. The debuting Kucharczyk, engineered by Tim Neff, was now 4.43s behind.

Taylor reclaimed the fastest lap on the next tour, and saving up his push-to-pass for a late-race attack. But Johnson had used it sparingly too, so as both hit the button over the final two laps it meant Johnson was still able to win by 0.699s.

Kucharczyk fell a further second behind, with Murray close behind but never attacking, and Hughes finished fifth. A lot further back was Rowe, who had continued to hold off Pierson, and HMD’s Salvador de Alba finished eighth after passing Abel’s Max Garcia on lap 26 (having conceded a place to him in a forceful turn one move on lap 11) then overtaking Cusick Morgan Motorsports’ Juan Manuel Correa on lap 31.

Beeton recovered to 11th, and Bryce Aron was Ganassi’s top driver in 18th.

Race results (42 laps)

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Photo: Chris Owens

Andretti Global’s Max Taylor claimed pole almost unopposed for the opening race of the Indy Nxt season in St. Petersburg.

Having topped both practice sessions, Taylor was then quickest in the second qualifying group as the 24-car field was split into two.

His team-mate Lochie Hughes was the driver to beat through the first half of group one’s session, bringing the pace down to 1m06.1041s.

HMD Motorsports’ Enzo Fittipaldi was initially second, then team-mate Salvador de Alba took over the position but was 1.0958 seconds off the pace.

Josh Pierson reduced team-mate Hughes’ advantage to 0.7221s with five minutes to go, at which point Cape Motorsports by Ed Carpenter Racing’s Nikita Johnson was among a group of drivers without a flying lap. Once his first effort did come in, he bettered Pierson by 0.0233s to go straight into second.

Abel Motorsports’ Max Garcia slotted into fourth at the same time, and several others set personal bests while Fittipaldi brought his damaged car back to the pits. He had got loose exiting turn three, tried to save his car but hit a wall that damaged the rear-left of his car.

Hughes lowered the pace to 1m05.9871s a minute later, leading Garcia by 0.4944s, Pierson by 0.5133s and de Alba by 0.6152s. When Johnson next crossed the line, he went from fifth to first as he went 0.0865s quicker than Hughes.

Pierson later also beat Hughes, by 0.0113s, and de Alba improved to 1m06.1391s in fourth. Johnson went even faster next time by, setting a 1m05.5418s, but Hughes responded with a 1m05.4352s. AJ Foyt Racing’s Alessandro de Tullio rose to fifth, posting a 1m06.2881s.

Johnson reclaimed provisional pole by 0.2204s with one-and-a-half minutes remaining, and Pierson improved to 1m05.8319s but remained in third. Hughes similarly found more pace but lapped 0.0957s shy of Johnson’s benchmark in the final minute, and de Tullio was 0.5283s behind in third. Pierson then reclaimed that position, getting within 0.3827s of Johnson.

While Johnson said it took a few laps for the track to rubber in, but remained pretty loose, Hughes say it did not rubber in at all and was very different to pracrtice when he lost running after being pushed into the barriers.

It did not take long for Johnson to lose pole once group two was on track. Taylor’s first flying lap was a 1m06.6478s, and on his next laps improved to 1m05.4337s then 1m04.9993s. His team-mate Seb Murray was closest at first, 0.0676s behind before the gap grew to 0.3807s and later 0.4746s.

Third place traded hands, with Juan Manuel Correa, Myles Rowe and Tymek Kucharczyk all occupying the position in the session’s first half and remaining within a second of the pole pace.

Cape’s Matteo Nannini was next to sit third, but only very briefly as Correa, Kucharczyk and Rowe all then held the position over the next 74s. In his attempt to reclaim the spot, Nannini had a huge crash that began as he exited turn two and led to debris going everywhere. That triggered a seven-minute stoppage and meant his fastest lap was deleted.

Qualifying did restart, and Correa improved at the very end to be fifth in the group. Kucharczyk was third, putting him on row three as each group fills a side of the race’s grid, which the debutant considered “a bit dissapointing”.

Qualifying results

The post Taylor untouchable in Indy Nxt’s St. Petersburg qualifying appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Chris Jones

Max Taylor led an Andretti Global lockout of the top three places in the first Indy Nxt practice session of 2026 in St. Petersburg.

The track was immediately busy when the 45-minute session began, and the first benchmark was a 1m09.9265s from Taylor.

His team-mates Lochie Hughes and Seb Murray then lowered the pace in the 1m08s, and once everyone was on track five minutes in the name on top was Abel Motorsports’ Max Garcia. He had set a 1m07.891s, edging Andretti’s Josh Pierson by 0.0329s and Abel with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe by 0.0631s.

HMD’s Salvador de Alba bettered Garcia by 0.0542s a minute later, then Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen edged ahead by 0.1277s.

Andretti was soon back on top, with Murray posting a 1m07.0788s to lead Hughes by 0.187s. Taylor was first to lap sub-1m07s, and his 1m06.4078s effort earned him first place by 0.3722s over Rowe. There was a 0.659s gap to HMD’s Tymek Kucharczyk once he climbed to third, but he was towards the bottom of the top 10 before the 10-minute mark.

Hughes lowered the pace to 1m06.1421s, leading Taylor by 0.2391s and HMD’s Enzo Fittipaldi by 0.4345s. Murray improved in fifth, as all but Rowe in the top half of the field improved and Garcia sat in the pits. When Taylor next crossed the line, he put in an impressive 1m05.8011s and Murray went third fastest but was 0.7513s behind.

More drivers pitted, and Rowe was demoted to sixth despite setting a personal best as de Albra bettered him in fifth.

Cape Motorsports by Ed Carpenter Racing’s Nikita Johnson took third place before red flags waved 15 minutes in. Approaching turn 10, HMD’s Jack Beeton had brushed the outside wall with his rear-right wheel and it sent him spinning into the corner. He broke his rear wing, rear-right wheel and suspension with a rearward impact, and the clear-up required a four-minute stoppage.

Taylor made a small gain of 0.0192s a few minutes after the restart, then improved further to 1m05.4236s as Hughes got within 0.4595s of his new benchmark.

Pierson set a personal best for fifth, then got faster again next time by and rose to third but was 0.8297s slower than Taylor. Garcia, who had headed back on track, jumped to fourth ahead of the improving Rowe with under 20 minutes to go, then Johnson reclaimed third with a 1m05.8925s and Fittipaldi posted a 1m06.1666s to sit fourth.

Taylor still had pace to find, and set a 1m05.2229s before pitting. Fittpaldi became his closest rival not long after that lap was set, but was 0.4788s off his pace, and there were personal bests from Cape’s Matteo Nannini, Murray and Rowe in fifth, sixth and seventh.

The track became far quieter, and Rowe utilised clear to break the 1m06s barrier three times. He rose to fifth, third and then second, lapping 0.3616s shy of Taylor.

Others were also able to string together successive personal bests, and sub-1m06s laps put Cusick Morgan Motorsports’s Juan Manuel Correa and Nannini into the top five and Abel’s Colin Kaminsky into seventh.

Red flags waved again with seven-and-a-half minutes to go as Hughes nosed into the barriers by turn eight. With assistance he returned to the pits sans front wing, and four minutes remained when green flags returned.

Lots of drivers headed out, but some then pitted and forwent the opportunity to improve. Kucharczyk and Koolen went sixth and seventh fastest with a minute remaining, and Murray then took seventh just before the chequered flag. After it flew, Taylor set an unbeatable 1m05.0852s. Pierson jumped from 13th to second, 0.4506s off and 0.001s ahead of Murray.

Free practice results

The post Taylor leads Andretti 1-2-3 in first Indy Nxt practice session of 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Double R Racing

Double R Racing is fielding Yuanpu Cui, Bart Harrison and Lorenzo Campos in Eurocup-3’s main and winter series this year.

The team, formed by Kimi Raikkonen and Steve Robertson in 2004, is returning to full-time racing after a four-year break. Following the conclusion of Euroformula’s 2021 season, its only race outings have been two British Formula 4 rounds in 2023.

As a test-only team since, Double R has run drivers in single-seaters at circuits across Britain. Its sister company Fine Moments operated W Series’ fleet of Formula Regional cars until 2022.

For its racing return in Eurocup-3, which has switched from FRegional cars to the new third-tier Dallara 326 chassis with TOM’S-developed 1.6-litre turbocharged Toyota engines, Double R will field three drivers.

Former Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Cui began 2026 by coming ninth in FRegional Oceania. His best result was fourth, in contrast to his points-free 2025 outings in FRegional’s European and Middle East championships, and the 18-year-old was 18th in GB3 last year as a part-timer.

Harrison has a podium from his two-round venture into GB3, but has primarily raced in F4 since 2024. A race-winning cameo put the 18-year-old 10th in F4 Central European Zone last year, he was seventh in Formula Winter Series’ standings, made the podium en route to 14th in Italian F4 and was 20th in British F4.

Campos, 16, represented Angola in the 2024 Motorsport Games F4 Cup and went points-free in Spanish F4’s main and winter championships in 2025.

“This is a good line-up to get us back into racing, and we are hoping to work with the drivers for some good results this season,” said Double R’s team principal Anthony Hieatt.

“Since leaving full-time racing at the end of 2021, we spent two years working on the cars used in the film F1: The Movie, and throughout this period we have done some extensive testing with our F4 and Formula 3 cars. We’ve probably been the busiest race team in Europe without actually doing any racing! As a group, we’ve been doing around 100 test days a year.”

Double R has a long history racing Dallara chassis, and ran Mike Conway to the 2006 British F3 title and Macau Grand Prix victory in a Dallara F306.

“The fact that this is a championship with fresh Dallaras meant that this was a good time to come back racing,” added Hieatt. “And it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to compete against some of the new powerhouses in single-seater racing like Hitech, Campos Racing and MP Motorsport. In our old days we never shied away from competing against Prema and Carlin. We really look forward to working with the Eurocup-3 organisers, who have made us feel very welcome.”

The team’s testing activities mean its personnel are all in place to transfer back into a racing environment.

“We’ve got a really experienced group of people who have been connected to the team for a period of years,” said Hieatt. “Everybody’s looking forward to the challenge.”

The post Double R Racing’s line-up for racing return in Eurocup-3 revealed appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Chris Jones

Indy Nxt will have a 24-car grid for this weekend’s season-opening round on the streets of St. Petersburg, as Juncos Hollinger Racing has signed Alexander Koreiba.

The late addition to the field is making a big change in career direction by heading to Indy Nxt, having previously raced prototype sportscars.

Koreiba does have single-seater experience, but only through races in the entry-level Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series back in 2018 and then a United States Formula 4 cameo three years. Since then, he has been busy in LMP3 machinery.

In 2022 he was runner-up in the IMSA Prototype Challenge, he made his IMSA debut in 2023, and two years ago he won Historic Sportscar Racing’s IMSA-affiliated Prototype Challenge in the pro-am class.

“This is a dream come true, and to do it with an organisation of this calibre makes it even more meaningful,” the 28-year-old American said of his Indy Nxt move.

Team co-owner Ricardo Juncos said Koreiba “brings a championship mindset and a relentless work ethic that aligns with our goals as an organisation”.

A few days ago the driver and team got to work with each other on-track in a two-day test that took place on the Miami track that Formula 1 races on. A shortened layout was used, and Koreiba’s team-mate Ricardo Escotto set the pace with his very last lap of the test.

Koreiba was fourth fastest, and Andretti Global’s Lochie Hughes in eighth place commented that the new gearbox being used this season has required him to adjust his driving style. He is the highest placed returnee, having come third in the 2025 standings as a rookie.

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Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1

The Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team has announced two new junior drivers, and the signing of Theo Pourchaire.

F1 work will be dovetailed by Pourchaire with racing for Peugeot in the World Endurance Championship’s top Hypercar class.

Since winning the 2023 Formula 2 title aged 20 and as a protege of Sauber, Pourchaire has raced at single-seaters’ top level but has been unable to do so full-time in any of those paddocks. He started off by graduating to Super Formula in early 2024, but gave up his seat at Team Impul after just one race to pursue IndyCar opportunities with McLaren.

Pourchaire had been called up for two races there as a stand-in for an injured driver. Having impressed the team, Pourchaire was offered a full-time seat (excluding the Indianapolis 500) and he dropped his SF seat to accept it. But the arrangement only lasted 40 days, as McLaren replaced him with paying fellow rookie Nolan Siegel who signed on a multi-year deal.

Having relocated to the USA, Pourchaire ended up only doing six IndyCar races with McLaren. Through 2024 he was also reserve driver for the Alfa Romeo Racing F1 team operated by Sauber. Despite ending his Swiss residency, which had provided proximity to Sauber’s headquarters, Pourchaire was able to continue his duties at several races (but with no free practice outings) until the end of 2024 when he left to join Peugeot as its test and development driver.

His 2025 contract also meant serving as Peugeot’s reserve driver when required (for example if the regular reserve driver had been called up to race), leading to him making his WEC debut in the season-ending Eight Hours of Bahrain. He finished 10th, and earned a full-time race seat for 2026. Pourchaire has also contested two Formula E practice sessions.

Frederik Vesti, the driver that Pourchaire beat to the F2 crown, has been promoted by Mercedes from the reverse driver role to being the F1 team’s ‘third driver’ this year, while junior team graduate Doriane Pin and new signings Joshua Duerksen and Pourchaire will share the simulator (in Britain) and trackside responsibilities of development drivers.

Mercedes has also announced that its junior Kenzo Craigie will race in E4 and Italian Formula 4 this year, after recently coming third in UAE4 as a single-seater rookie, while former rival James Anagnostiadis remains in senior and shifter karting.

The four drivers departing the junior team’s ranks were revealed in January, and after some overalls-fuelled speculation it has been confirmed that 11-year-old karters Niccolo Perico and Devin Titz join for 2026.

Perico currently leads the WSK Super Master Series in the OK-N Junior class after winning the first three rounds, and in mini karting last year the Italian won the Champions of the Future Academy Program, WSK Final Cup and WSK SMS titles.

Titz, from Germany, is still in mini karting. He sits sixth in WSK SMS, and was fourth in the 2024 German championship.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport

Formula 2 race-winner Roman Stanek has made a surprise step up to single-seaters’ top tier by landing a seat in Super Formula.

The 22-year-old Czech has joined Kondo Racing, which will expand to three cars but with Stanek’s entered under the name ‘MK Racing’. MK are the initials of the team’s founder Masahiko Kondo, who is still in search of a primary sponsor for the entry.

Stanek’s deal was announced a few days before pre-season testing began this week at Suzuka. One of his team-mates and fellow rookies is former F2 rival Luke Browning, who has emerged unharmed from a huge crash in wet conditions at the Suzuka test.

“Really thrilled to continue my career in the top level single-seater category,” said Stanek. “I am very much looking forward to a new start with MK Racing in Japan, and I am very grateful to the team for this opportunity.”

Across his three seasons in F2, Stanek won both a feature race and a sprint race. Last year he claimed two pole positions, each converted into a runner-up finish, and was third in two sprint races en route to 10th in the standings.

Prior to that, Stanek had spent three years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with similar levels of success. He made the podium twice in his sophomore campaign, and was fifth in the points table the year after as he picked up a feature race victory, converted his maiden pole into a second place finish and was runner-up in both races at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

AIX Racing’s Cian Shields ended Formula 2’s pre-season test at Barcelona on top on Thursday afternoon.

Only Hitech GP and AIX completed installation laps in the first 27 minutes, with Invicta Racing then heading out. The first laptime came 34 minutes into the three-hour session, a 1m32.188s from AIX’s Emmo Fittipaldi.

Shields swiftly beat him by 0.773s, and Fittipaldi improved to be 0.152s off before Hitech’s drivers laid down their first laptimes. Colton Herta posted a 1m30.912s, then Ritomo Miyata went 0.157s quicker.

Shields got within 0.886s of Miyata’s benchmark, and 43 minutes in Invicta’s Joshua Duerksen became the fifth driver with a laptime to their name as ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing and Rodin Motorsport embarked on installation laps.

On his next atttempt, Duerksen set a 1m30.381s for third place, and Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne was 0.034s behind with his opening effort. When team-mate Alex Dunne completed his first flying lap, his 1m29.534s made him fastest by 0.221s. Stenshorne then improved to 1m29.960s in third.

Dunne was only on top for a minute, as Invicta’s Rafael Camara edged ahead by 0.099s. But Dunne responded, reclaiming first place by 0.073s. More than half of the field was now active, and Herta set a personal best in fifth, 0.6s off the pace.

Campos’s line-up posted their first flying laps 57 minutes in, with Noel Leon beating Nikola Tsolov to sixth. Tsolov found more pace on his next two laps, and a 1m29.740s put him third.

Hour two began with the first laptimes from ART GP’s drivers, which sent them straight to the top. Kush Maini set a 1m28.582s to lead Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak by 0.291s, as Stenshorne improved in seventh. DAMS’ Roman Bilinski and the Dutch teams MP Motorsport and Van Amersfoort Racing had still not left their garages.

With the track more rubbered in, those going straight into flying laps could extract more pace and Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen went third fastest, 0.553s off Maini, five minutes into hour two as most drivers embarked on long runs.

Van Hoepen’s team-mate John Bennett and Prema’s Sebastian Montoya soon appeared on the timesheet, and Nico Varrone departed VAR’s garage while Rafael Villagomez remained there all afternoon.

Tsolov and Leon improved in sixth and eighth at the 70-minute mark, and the first laptime from a DAMS driver appeared.

It took another seven minutes for MP’s duo and Bilinski to finally set timed laps, with the latter taking 12th place. Approaching the session’s halfway mark, 20 drivers were on track and Varrone went ninth fastest with his first flying lap.

Camara rose from fifth to third with 75 minutes to go, 0.059s ahead of van Hoepen, and the long runs concluded as hour two ended.

Varrone started racking up laps, but eventually only he and Herta were on track and then he was alone with 45 minutes to go before Hitech’s drivers headed back out. Four minutes on Varrone pitted, and later AIX’s drivers left the pits.

Shields lowered the pace by 1.911s with 33 minutes remaining, shooting up from 20th place. Fittipaldi went fastest by 0.32s three minutes later, and both pitted.

Several drivers started new runs, while Shields returned to track for a few laps and reclaimed top spot by 0.082s with 22 minutes left of the test.

The track got busier, and two improvements lifted Prema’s Mari Boya to fifth, 2.673s off Shields, 14 minutes from the end.

Shield’s advantage was cut to 0.039s by Leon four minutes after that, and Herta and Miyata then set a 1m27.869s and 1m28.788s respectively to rise to fourth and sixth.

Red flags waved when van Hoepen stopped on the pit straight, and there was scant action in the three minutes left after that.

Afternoon session results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Invicta Racing’s Rafael Camara was quickest again on the final morning of Formula 2’s pre-season test at Barcelona.

The three-hour session had a quiet first 25 minutes in which only Campos Racing’s drivers had set laps at a representative pace. Noel Leon, having posted a 1m25.173s, led Nikola Tsolov by 0.516 seconds and only nine drivers had been on track.

Tsolov soon moved ahead by 0.025s, but Leon improved to 1m23.769s as the pair circulated on their own.

The next driver to set a flying lap was Hitech GP’s Ritomo Miyata, 37 minutes in, and his 1m26.617s was swiftly bettered by team-mate Colton Herta and then ART Grand Prix’s drivers. Kush Maini set a 1m25.276s to sit third, 0.145s faster than Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.

When Camara’s first flying lap came a few minutes later, he was 2.598s off the pace in sixth. He made a gain of 0.826s and one position next time around.

Tsolov then moved back ahead of Leon by 0.115s, Invicta’s Joshua Duerksen jumped to third with a lap 0.558s off Tsolov’s 1m23.654s and there was lots of change from seventh place downwards as many drivers lapped at pace for the first time.

Trident’s John Bennett was without any running at the end of hour one, when the track was empty due to red flags caused by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone going off at the last corner.

Seventh place had been snatched by Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne just before the interruption, and after the restart Inthraphuvasak and Maini improved in third and fourth.

DAMS’ Dino Beganovic briefly held sixth before being bettered by MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe, who was 1.512s off the pace, and at the 72-minute mark VAR’s Rafael Villagomez had a final corner off that led to a 28-minute red flag period.

Bennett headed out when green flags waved but did not record a flying lap before Leon stopped on track, triggering another stoppage.

With 66 minutes remaining, Camara posted a 1m23.978s to take third, and DAMS’ Roman Bilinski became the last driver within a second of the pace in eighth. Beganovic then posted a 1m25.058s to hold fourth before Prema’s Mari Boya lapped 0.172s off Tsolov’s benchmark. Miyata and Herta also improved in the top 10, and a second now split the top 13.

Most drivers returned to the pits after that, and on a quieter track MP’s Gabriele Mini became Tsolov’s closest rival with a lap 0.067s off the long-standing best.

Long runs were more frequent in the final hour, meaning fewer personal bests, but with 51 minutes to go Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen jumped from 18th to second as he outpaced Mini by 0.05s. Bennett went quickest in sector two in his next lap, climbing from 19th to 10th, then a minute later Herta got within 0.097s of Tsolov in fourth and Miyata improved to seventh.

The track became quieter again, but Camara stayed out and with 45 minutes left of the session laid down a 1m23.252s. Leon bettered Tsolov too, but was 0.274s off the new time to beat. Van Hoepen was now fourth, ahead of Mini and Herta in an order that went unchanged.

Morning session results

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