Mardenborough quickest on day one
Carlin’s Jann Mardenborough fastest at Barcelona pre-season test
Brit Jann Mardenborough was in excellent form on the opening day of testing clocking the fastest time of the day and finishing P2 in the afternoon session. His best laptime of 1:34.910 remained unbeaten. Seb Morris (Status Grand Prix) topped the afternoon session.
The final pre-season test of the season got underway under grey skies with the 24 drivers setting their installation laps around the Circuit de Catalunya. It was a very quiet morning with no competitive times set until over half of the session had run.
Mardenborough was the early pace setter and first to dip into the 1m34’s, three tenths faster than teammate Antonio Fuoco. Jenzer Motorsport’s Pal Varhaug and Ralph Boschung shot to second and third before a red flag halted proceedings when Samin Gomez testing for Campos Racing stopped at the exit of Turn 5.
Once the action resumed, ART Grand Prix’s Marvin Kirchhöfer and Koiranen GP’s Jimmy Eriksson jumped up the order to P3 and P4 respectively but nobody was able to improve on the best time set by Mardenborough at the chequered flag. Varhaug, Kirchhöfer, Boschung, Eriksson, Esteban Ocon, Fuoco, Alfonso Celis. Jr, Oscar Tunjo, Adderly Fong completed the top ten.
Following the two hour break, Morris was first to top the timings with Campos Racing’s Alex Palou in second. Early on in the session light rain fell, bringing all the drivers back into their garages as they waited for the rain to stop. As the sunshine fought to appear through the thick clouds, drivers returned to track action with times around four seconds off the pace.
In the final forty-five minutes, Mardenborough moved up to P2, one tenth off Morris as the circuit began to dry enough for times to marginally improve. Matthew Parry also found some extra pace to rise to third as the clock ticked down.
Fuoco stopped at turn three in the final minutes which brought out the red flag leaving just one minute remaining. At the chequered flag, Morris remained head of the pack as he had done for the whole afternoon session ahead of Mardenborough, Parry, Palou, Alex Fontana, Sandy Stuvik, Emil Bernstorff, Fuoco, Celis. Jr and Matheo Tuscher.