DOOHAN TOPS DAY 1 OF JEREZ F3 TEST

After finishing second in the FIA Formula 3 Championship Feature Race, Australian Jack Doohan has continued that momentum by topping both test sessions at Jerez.

Less than a week after a strong season-opening round at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Doohan was fastest on the opening day of the mid-season test.

The Queenslander showed pace throughout the day by topping both the morning and afternoon sessions, while fellow Australian Calan Williams found himself in the top 10 overall.

After switching from HWA Racelab to Trident in the offseason Doohan has a strong first round. Although Saturday’s inverted grid races did not go to plan, Doohan did pick up some solid points.

The following day he translated his second-place grid spot into second in the feature race result and sees him sitting fifth in the standings.

In testing Doohan ended the morning session on top of the times, he completed 18 laps with his fastest a 1m 29.625s.

This was 0.051s faster than his new teammate Clement Novalak bagged 13 laps, less than half of what Frederik Vesti who ended up third fastest completed.

Vesti was the only other driver within 0.1s of Doohan, while Jonny Edgar, Alexander Smolyar and Hitech Grand Prix driver Ayumu Iwasa rounded out the top six.

Williams was next, 0.342s off the pace of Doohan and completed 23 laps in the morning. Williams was only the second driver to break into the 29s bracket, but by the end of the session slipped down to seventh.

Caio Collet, Pierre Louis Chovet and Jak Crawford round out the top 10.

Times were almost a second slower in the afternoon session as track temperatures increased.

Doohan left his quick time later than most and set a 1m 30.605 to go on top of the timesheets. He pipped Iwasa by just 0.009s, American Crawford and championship leader Dennis Hauger who rounded out the top four.

The quartet of drivers are all part of the Red Bull Junior academy and were separated by just 0.12s.

Novalak was the fastest non-Red Bull junior in fifth just ahead of Edgar.

Charles Leclerc’s brother Arthur ended the day seventh fastest after a tough opening round.

Coller, Roman Stanak, Amaury Cordeel, Smolyar and Juan Manuel Correa rounded out the top dozen machines.

Jenzer driver Williams ended the day in 13th after completing an impressive 41 laps.

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