F3 Austria test round-up: Collet breaks track record at the Red Bull Ring

Alpine Formula 1 junior Caio Collet ended Formula 3 pre-season testing fastest at the Red Bull Ring.
F3 Austria test round-up: Collet breaks track record at the Red Bull Ring

Alpine Formula 1 ﷽junior Caio Collet ended Formula 3 pre-season t🙈esting fastest at the Red Bull Ring.

The Brazilian set an F3 track record in the process with a 1m18.592s in the afternoon session on day two of the te🐷st in Austria♉.

Collet ended the day just under 0.2s clear of Preౠma’s Dennis Hauger in second place.

Jenzer Motorsport’s Calan Williams initially broke Alexander Smolyar’s record lap – set on day one - during a qualifying run in the morning session on day two. 🎉;

Collet, Hauger, Crawford and Jonny Eཧdgar all posted faဣster times in the final afternoon session.

Day 1

Smolya🦄r was the man to beat on day on♊e of testing at the Red Bull Ring.

The ART Grand Prix returnee set his table-topping ♛1m18.894s with𝄹 just 19 minutes left on the clock in the afternoon session.

He was the only driver to dip into the🌳 1m18s as Jonny Edg🍸ar was his nearest challenger for Carlin, 0.142s back in second.

Just 0.867s separa👍ted the top 23 on the fir💖st afternoon of the season highlighting F3’s tight, competitive nature once again.

The good news story of the test was the return of Juan Manuel Correa after his ⛄accident 18 months ago in F2 at 🎃Spa-Francorchamps.

Cor🌱rea ended the first day 14th fastest overall, just over 0.5s shy of Smolyar’s top time.

Day 2

Day two of pre-season testing got off to a slow start as a sprinkling of snow halted 🎉proceedings.

Once conditions improved, the track action got underway as Victor Martins bettered Smolyar’s benchmark 𝐆from the first day by 0.0ꦓ58s.

T𒁃he final afternoon session is where the times picked up as 15-year-old American driver Jak Crawford broke th⛎e lap record with a 1m18.775s.

Crawford eventually dropped to thir🐻d at the end of the day as Coll🦂et and fellow Red Bull junior Hauger set new lap records of their own.

Edgar, Matteo Nannini, Frederik Vesti, Clément Novalak, Michael Belov and Olli Caldwell all set times in the 1m18s bracket in the afternoon - completing the top nine in the final clasꦕsification.

F3 will retur🅷n for another two-day pre-season test at the Circuit-de Barcelona-Catalunya on April 21-22, ahead of the season-opener in M𒅌ay.

Read More