Russell heads morning running on Day 3 of Le Castellet

George Russell claimed the best time of the morning session on Day 3 of FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing at Le Castellet, France, ahead of ART Grand Prix teammate Jack Aitken with a 1:42.396 lap.

As teams sought to make the most of the remaining time available on the last day of testing, Arjun Maini was first on the scene at the start of the day. The Trident driver was followed onto the circuit by both ART drivers and teammate Santino Ferrucci, as the rest of the field filtered onto the track for an early flurry of activity.

Roy Nissany (Campos Vexatec Racing) brought out the first red flag after 20 minutes of running having stopped on the Mistral Straight. At this stage, Russell headed the standings with a medium tyre benchmark in the 1m43s, and after the session restarted the British driver began to trade best times with teammate Aitken. Although the latter held the advantage after the first hour, Russell soon recouped his position at the top by the midway point of the session.

Two further red flags were shown during the second hour of the session; Antonio Fuoco stopped on the circuit for the first, while RUSSIAN TIME’s Artem Markelov and Ralph Boschung (MP Motorsport) came to a halt within seconds of each other for the second.

Luca Ghiotto (Campos) led the field out as the session quickly restarted, as the drivers spent the rest of the morning getting stuck into their long-run programs. Russell’s time remained impenetrable, as the teams focused on race pace for the remainder, with Aitken finishing second just under two tenths shy of his teammate. Between them, the ART duo clocked in over 100 laps, with Aitken managing 56 of them.

Nyck De Vries (PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing) was third fastest ahead of DAMS’ Alexander Albon, as Louis Delétraz of Charouz Racing System completed the top five. Sergio Sette Camara (Carlin) was sixth fastest ahead of teammate Lando Norris, as Maximilian Günther and Nirei Fukuzumi of BWT Arden finished eighth and ninth respectively. Replacing Oliver Rowland at DAMS for the third day of running, Daniel Ticktum rounded out the top 10.