FIA Formula 3 saw the first day of the final two-day post-season test of the 2024 season completed in Barcelona on Tuesday. This would be the last piece of track action of any kind for the 2024 season and this would be the final event of which the current era's machinery will participate in with a new model of car and spec will be introduced from 2025 onwards. The car spec that has lasted from the first season of 2019, through to 2024 will have its final day of action on Wednesday - for day two of the final post-season test. Overall on day 1 at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, the second Spanish venue for post-season testing, it was largely dominated by Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing and Alpine Academy. Tsolov topped both the morning and afternoon sessions on day one but it was his morning lap timed at 1:27.866 that was the best lap of the day while all the other drivers recorded their best lap times in the morning session. In the event of this, the morning times would be the classification order that the drivers have ended up in. Therefore Tsolov would have top spot ahead of Prema's Noel Leon who would have had a spring in his step after signing with the Prema outfit for the 2025 Formula 3 season. There would be two Campos drivers inside the top three as Mari Boya would finish in third position. Trident's Rafael Camara would be the highest placed rookie in fourth while MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz completed the top five. At the end of day one, it would be Joshua Dufek of Hitech Pulse-Eight who completed the most laps with 77 across the six hours of running. Morning Session - Day 1Just one week on from the start of the first post-season test at Jerez, it was time to do it all again for FIA Formula 3 as they were all set to go testing around the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya for the morning session of day 1. The Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya is a circuit that Formula 3 knows well, especially with holding mid-season testing and a round of racing across 2024. In addition, the circuit would also see the final action of the 2024 season on track and also the final piece of track action for the current era of car. The current era of machinery that has been the Formula 3 car since the very first race, at Barcelona-Catalunya, back in 2019 will finish its running in the championship's history at the end of day 2 on Wednesday. A fitting final place for the car to bow out of track action in the formal championship. Just like the previous week at Jerez, the test at Barcelona will be across two days and it will be a learning experience for teams and drivers as they strive to form new partnerships ahead of the new season or for some drivers it would be a case of trying to impress in the hope of getting a sear for the 2025 campaign. At 09:00 local time, the morning session for day one would be underway with it being a slow start to the three-hour session. Campos were the only team to run within the first 30 minutes with Nikola Tsolov holding the top time from his teammates Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. The Spanish outfit, on home soil, looked strong in both days at Jerez and they were starting off well too in Barcelona. However, soon after the three Campos drivers had set some lap times, Hitech Pulse-Eight sent their drivers out to try and get a feel for the track and to get some laps under their belts. The drivers at Hitech would be Joshua Dufek, Martinius Stenshorne and Gerrard Xie. The Hitech drivers would also be joined by the three Van Amersfoort cars being driven by Theophile Nael, John Bennett and Ivan Domingues. With 45 minutes completed in the session the order had changed slightly although Alpine Academy driver Nikola Tsolov would remain fastest with his provisional quickest time of 1:27.866. Mari Boya would also remain second but taking third position would be Dufek. McLaren Development Driver Martinius Stenshorne would move into fourth which would push Inthraphuvasak down to fifth. However, this was only the early stages of the day's six hours in total, so a lot could change before the overall classification. As for the morning session, there would be just over two hours remaining but the track would have become increasingly busy with all drivers and teams having lap times on the board except the Trident team. The top five with two hours remaining would still have the two Campos drivers (Tsolov and Boya) first and second respectively. German driver Tim Tramnitz would be third ahead of Prema's Ugo Ugochukwu and ART Grand Prix's James Wharton who were fourth and fifth. As time progressed into the second hour of the morning session times were chopping and changing with Tsolov's time remaining firm and untouched at the top of the timing pages. Campos were maintaining a 1-2 with Boya in second. There would be a few yellow flag moments with drivers pushing limits and trying to impress their teams around a circuit most of them will know well. During the second hour, there would be a red flag stoppage as Ivan Domingues would run into an issue out on circuit and this would suspend running while his Van Amersfoort Racing machine was cleared. The session would be green once again with drivers heading out onto the circuits to get some more lap times on the board with all drivers having set times in the session. With less than half an hour remaining, drivers kept on pumping in the lap times with Noel Leon breaking the Campos 1-2 for Prema by going second quickest but his best attempt woud not be good enough to take top spot from Tsolov. Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine champion (FRECA) Rafael Camara would go fourth for Trident after a slow session for the team as they left it fairly late within the first hour to get going. There would be a few more lap times in the session but no one could ultimately beat Nikola Tsolov's early lap time of 1:27.866 and he would end the morning session of day one fastest overall. Tsolov would be top ahead of Prema's Noel Leon who finished second with the second Campos of Mari Boya who completed the top three. Rafael Camara and Tim Tramnitz would complete the top five. Teams, drivers and engineers would break for lunch with they to all return for the afternoon session. Afternoon Session - Day 1After a lunch break, the paddock would return to testing action as the teams and drivers would be ready to conclude the penultimate track day of the 2024 Formula 3 season. Nikola Tsolov was fastest in the morning session for Campos as the Bulgarian driver managed to set an impressive lap time in the early stages, which was good enough to see him end the session top overall. Early on in the session, many drivers would take to the circuit for the start of the second three-hour session of the day with the likes of Hitech and Rodin being the first teams to put their drivers out onto the circuit. Freddie Slater in the very early lap times would put his Rodin Motorsport car top of the time sheets but that wouldn't be for very long as McLaren Development junior Martinius Stenshorne would take top spot with a 1:29.018. Stenshorne and Slater would be the top two after an hour with Hitech's Joshua Dufek in third. MP Motorsport duo Tim Tramnitz and Alessandro Giusti completed the top five. Times were not quite up to the level of times which had been set in the morning session. However, there was still plenty of time remaining for things to change . Track action would go quiet for a short while but before long cars would have to re-emerge from the pit lane and back onto the 14-corner circuit. Stenshorne would be fastest ahead of Slater but would it stay that way? At the halfway point, the order would see slight changes as Spanish driver of MP Motorsport, Bruno Del Pino would elevate himself above his MP teammate Tim Tramnitz and would go into third place. While also improving, Tramnitz would progress to fourth - pushing Joshua Dufek outside the top five. The pair would both be knocked down a place though with Jenzer Motorsport's Matias Zagazeta getting promoted up to third in what would be Jenzer's final event in Formula 3 as they are leaving the series at the end of 2024. Into the final hour and Stenshorne's time would be beaten by Trident driver and rookie Rafael Camara, who managed to go top around Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya just weeks after winning the FRECA title at that specific track. Camara would come across the line with a 1:28.891 which was over a tenth faster than Stenshorne's time which had him top of the times previously. As more cars would be attempting fast laps the track began to improve and therefore so did the lap times with Camara's time being under threat. Camara would not be beaten by his Trident teammate Charlie Wurz before the Austrian was dislodged by the Campos of Mari Boya, who won in the 2024 sprint race as part of the regular season. Boya would sit third ahead of Wurz in fourth. Once again Campos were looking quick, just like they did one week ago in Jerez. Nikola Tsolov who had shown brilliant speed throughout post-season testing from his first appearance back in Jerez for day two. After a fairly quiet session, he would find his groove and would fly up the timing pages to the very top and he would have the fastest time of the afternoon session provisionally as there was still time for things to potentially change, A 1:28.370 would pull himself half a second clear of Camara's lap. It was a truly brilliant lap from the Bulgarian driver and he was set to end the day having topped both three-hour testing sessions across the day. A brilliant showing from the Alpine Academy driver. The time would not be beaten and although there would be lap times throughout the remaining minutes of the session Tsolov would not be stopped and the afternoon session would end with him on top of the times although this would not be his best time recorded on the day. Tsolov finished ahead of Camara who was second for Trident with Martinius Stenshorne ending up third by the end of the second session. Mari Boya and Charlie Wurz would complete the top five. However, no afternoon times recorded by any of the 30 drivers were their personal bests of the session and therefore the morning finished order would be the order in the overall classification for day one running. This would not change top spot as Tsolov would be fastest in both sessions. His time in the morning session which was a 1:27.866 was good enough to oversee any challengers. His closest competitor Noel Leon was second for Prema while Mari Boya in the second Campos completed the top three. Rafael Camara ended up fourth overall for Trident and was the highest place rookie while the highest place MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz was fifth. Ugo Ugochukwu was sixth for Prema ahead of Joshua Dufek who completed the most laps out of any driver across the day - 77 in total. Noah Stromsted finished eighth for Trident ahead of Martinius Stenshorne in ninth. James Wharton completed the top 10 for ART. After a fantastic day one of action at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya attention will turn to Wednesday as the final day of the Barcelona test will take place and it will also be the final piece of track action of the 2024 Formula 3 season and the last track action for this era of car. 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Post-season testing - Barcelona Day 1 classification
Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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