F3: Nikita Bedrin fastest on first day of testing

Nikita Bedrin, a Russian driver with an Italian license for Jenzer Motorsport, was the best in both sessions of the official Formula 3 test that started today in Imola.

At the end of the morning session, with the teams working mainly in qualifying mode, Nikita completed the lap in 1:31.445, just 0.024 seconds ahead of Prema’s Paul Aron.

In the afternoon, Bedrin brought the result to 1:30.368, which no one managed to cover, and his lead over Gabriele Bortoleto, the leader of the individual ranking of the youth series, who showed the second fastest time, was quite convincing – 0.322 seconds .

In the morning, work on the track was briefly interrupted twice by red flags. First MP Motorsport’s Brit Johnny Edgar crashed into the gravel at Turn 3 of the track, then a Campos Racing car driven by Australian Hugh Barter stopped at Turn 1.

Day session events developed more dynamically, the riders were already “shot” on the track, so they got going without much hesitation. Franco Colapinto, an Argentinian Williams Academy student who plays for MP Motorsport, led protocol for some time, but it was clear his result would be blocked.

Two Trident team cars stopped on track causing another red flag, and when the session resumed, Brazilian Chao Collet (Van Amersfoort Racing) was the first to cross the 1 minute mark. 32 seconds, after which José-Maria “Pepe” Martí, the Spanish Campos rider, moved up to first place in 1:31.287.

But even as the teams started working on race pace over long laps, results continued to climb, with Hitech’s Gabriele Mini taking the lead, although he only beat Marty’s time by 0.025 seconds. However, he did not stay on the first line for long, from there he was pushed out by Bortoleto.

In the last hour of the session, the red flags had to be flown twice more – first because of the departure of Leonardo Fornaroli, then, when there were only six minutes left before the end of the scheduled work on the track, the car of Marie Boy trapped in a gravel trap.

But it was in the break between these two events that Nikita Bedrin showed the best time of the day, confirming his speed. In just two sessions he completed 67 laps, which is not bad, but there were riders who finished more, for example Rodin Carlin’s Oliver Gray had more than 70 laps at the end of the day.

Testing at Imola will continue on Wednesday.

Results of the second session

Results of the first session