During the afternoon session of the first GP3 Series at Circuit Paul Ricard lap times continued to drop, and the impressive reliability of the cars was also apparent with 1324 laps completed throughout the day, covering an impressive distance of over 5000 km. Ending the session on top was ART s Esteban Guttierez posting a time of 1:20.949, over one second quicker than the fastest driver in the morning session.
Michael Christensen at MW Arden and Pablo Sanchez Lopez at Addax Team completed the top three. A total of eleven drivers posted a quicker lap time than this morning s ART s Rossi s best effort.
Esteban Guttierez, ART Grand Prix: Today was exciting because just looking at the car for a month without driving it was frustrating for me! Getting to know the car was our main goal of the day, and in the end it was also a good result for us. It is only the first day so we have to keep working. I had a good feeling with the car, and really enjoyed the high downforce: it is good for training for GP2. The feeling is also similar with paddle shifts. It is a really enjoyable car to drive.
Michael Christensen, MW Arden: It was not the best weather conditions in the beginning, but it went well from my side. We focused on bedding in the car. When the track got dryer we started improving both the car and my driving. It is really nice to drive and it s quicker than what I am used to driving which is good. The grip level is also very high.
Pablo Sanchez Lopez, Addax team: I have enjoyed every lap so much because you can always find another way to reach the limit. I m happy with our performance today because it is such a competitive Series already, but we can still improve a lot. Tomorrow we will work again in understanding even better how the car works and keep pushing throughout the season.
Didier Perrin, GP3 Technical Director said: It is inevitable to get a bit nervous before the first test day of a new Series. However, after the first hour today I was already quite pleased with the way things were going, especially when each of the teams had at least one or two cars on track so quickly into the session. Plus, I saw at least six of the young drivers fighting for on track position and overtaking each other in the very first laps of the Series history this is something I had never seen before! say that the preparations were excellent and all the teams were ready as soon as the pitlane opened. The feedback they gave me was that the drivers all really enjoyed driving the car and felt that it was quick with a very high level of grip. Despite some natural glitches that were expected, the overall reliability of the cars has been outstanding, and we are very satisfied with this l do great things this
Afternoon session complete results:
Driver Team Time Laps
1. Esteban Gutierrez Art Grand Prix 1:20.949 46 2. Michael Christensen MW Arden 1:20.986 38 3. Pablo Sanchez Lopez Addax Team 1:21.283 30 4. Kazimieras Vasiliauskas Tech 1 Racing 1:21.402 48 5. Robert Wickens Status GP 1:21.644 23 6. Max Chilton Carlin 1:21.761 7 7. Alexander Rossi Art Grand Prix 1:21.818 16 8. Nigel Melker RSC Mucke Motorsport 1:21.868 28 9. Pal Varhaug Jenzer Motorsport 1:21.994 28 10. Luca Foresti Carlin 1:22.021 41 11. Renger Van der Zande RSC Mucke Motorsport 1:22.163 27 12. Nico Muller Jenzer Motorsport 1:22.188 43 13. Mirko Bortolotti Addax Team 1:22.240 37 14. Rio Haryanto Manor Racing 1:22.259 19 15. Dean Stoneman Tech 1 Racing 1:22.357 14 16. Leonardo Cordeiro MW Arden 1:22.377 35 17. Alexander Simms Atech CRS GP 1:22.542 37 18. Luiz Razia Manor Racing 1:22.645 8 19. James Jakes Manor Racing 1:22.653 15 20 Tobias Hegewald RSC Mucke Motorsport 1:22.719 21 21. Simon Trummer Jenzer Motorsport 1:23.395 26 22. Viktor Jensen Atech CRS GP 1:23.585 28 23. Olivier Oakes Addax Team 1:24.425 13 24. Daniel Morad Status GP 1:24.555 9 25. Ivan Lukashevich Status GP 1:25.594 35 26. Vittorio Ghirelli Atech CRS GP 1:25.715 27 27. Adriano BUZAID Carlin 1:28.317 7 28. Pedro Nunes Art Grand Prix -- 3 29. Miki Monras MW Arden -- 2
