Esteban Gutiérrez continued to dominate the final GP3 Series pre-season test this morning after clocking the best lap time of 1:37.467.
After early rain in Barcelona the session started on a drying track with teams initially opting for wet weather tyres. But the thirty young drivers certainly let the weather dampen their spirits as they all continued relentlessly to push their GP3 machines to find the limit.
Unfortunately for some drivers this also meant finding either the gravel traps or tyre walls around the 4.655 km track resulting in a slightly stop start morning session. As the track tried and drivers were able to go out on fresh slick Pirelli tyres the lap times rapidly dropped. ART Grand Prix s Esteban Gutiérrez matched his best time from yesterday almost exactly, and Michael Christensen took second spot for MW Arden after posting his best time of the test so far 1:37.637.
Renger van der Zande finished the session in third spot for RSC Mucke improving on his best position yesterday with a time of 1:37.666. Pål Varhaug bounced back from his off yesterday to put in an impressive performance for Jenzer Motorsport finishing in fourth spot: the 19-year-old s highest placing in a GP3 test to date. James Jakes rounded out the top five for Manor with a time of 1:37.885.
Gutiérrez s ART teammate Alexander Rossi ended the session in sixth place, closely followed by top Status GP driver Daniel Morad. Eighth place driver was Nico Muller for Jenzer Motorsport putting two of the cars in the top ten. Ninth was yesterday afternoon s second place man Miki Monras for MW Arden with a best time of 1:38.085.
The final driver in the top ten was Robert Wickens for Status Grand Prix. By the end of the session the top ten drivers were separated by just six tenths of a second. In total 789 laps over 3,700 km were completed by the field.
The test will conclude with a three hour session this afternoon at 14.00 pm local time.
Pos Car # Driver Team Best Laps
1 2 Esteban Gutierrez ART GRAND PRIX 1.37.467 38
2 20 Michael Christensen MWARDEN 1.37.637 30
3 11 Renger Van Der Zand RSC MUCKE MOTORSPORT 1.37.666 31
4 23 Pal Varhaug JENZER MOTORSPORT 1.37.806 32
5 7 James Jakes MANOR RACING 1.37.885 28
6 1 Alexander Rossi ART GRAND PRIX 1.37.975 36
