Marciello heads Barcelona F3 test

Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello reinforced his status as one of the Formula 3 European Championship favourites by going comfortably fastest on the first official test day at Barcelona.

The Italian stretched out a 0.440-second advantage over Britain’s Alex Lynn as the duo completed a one-two for the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes squad, which took Daniel Juncadella to the 2012 title.

British team T-Sport was buoyed by Will Buller taking the third-fastest time in the ThreeBond Nissan-powered Dallara.

Buller was one of very few to hold back a set of Hankook tyres in the closing 30 minutes of the six hours of running, meaning he did not challenge at the front in the afternoon times.

Prema’s good day continued when Austrian Lucas Auer, effectively a rookie at this level of F3, topped the afternoon times to go fourth overall. He edged out the leading Volkswagen-powered runner, Carlin’s Harry Tincknell.

European F3 Open graduate Mans Grenhagen sprung a surprise, the Swede going sixth in his Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Volkswagen.

Behind Sven Muller, British F3 newcomer Jordan King and Pascal Wehrlein, Italian Antonio Giovinazzi – a veteran of just eight car-race meetings – did an impressive job to round out the top 10 in Double R Racing’s lead Dallara-Mercedes.

There were very few incidents on-track, but there was drama in the pits when Josh Hill’s Fortec car caught fire during the morning, although he carried on testing in the afternoon. The team’s fastest runner was Felix Serralles, in 12th.

The test continues on Saturday.

Combined Friday test times:  Pos  Driver               Team/Car                     Time       Gap  1.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc          1m41.023s  2.  Alex Lynn            Prema Dallara-Merc          1m41.463s  + 0.440s  3.  Will Buller          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan      1m41.688s  + 0.665s  4.  Lucas Auer           Prema Dallara-Merc          1m41.758s  + 0.735s  5.  Harry Tincknell	  Carlin Dallara-VW           1m41.824s  + 0.801s  6.  Mans Grenhagen       Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW   1m41.895s  + 0.872s  7.  Sven Muller          Ma-con Dallara-VW           1m41.918s  + 0.905s  8.  Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW           1m41.973s  + 0.950s  9.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc          1m41.990s  + 0.967s 10.  Antonio Giovinazzi   Double R Dallara-Merc       1m42.059s  + 1.036s 11.  Dennis van de Laar   Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW   1m42.113s  + 1.090s 12.  Felix Serralles	  Fortec Dallara-Merc         1m42.130s  + 1.107s 13.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc          1m42.135s  + 1.112s 14.  Nicholas Latifi	  Carlin Dallara-VW           1m42.136s  + 1.113s 15.  Tom Blomqvist        EuroIntern'l Dallara-Merc   1m42.142s  + 1.119s 16.  Pipo Deran           Fortec Dallara-Merc         1m42.208s  + 1.185s 17.  Jann Mardenborough   Carlin Dallara-VW           1m42.335s  + 1.312s 18.  Eddie Cheever        Prema Dallara-Merc          1m42.356s  + 1.333s 19.  Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Merc          1m42.392s  + 1.369s 20.  Tatiana Calderon	  Double R Dallara-Merc       1m42.634s  + 1.611s 21.  Mitchell Gilbert     Mucke Dallara-Merc          1m42.693s  + 1.670s 22.  Sean Gelael	  Double R Dallara-Merc       1m42.705s  + 1.682s 23.  Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-Nissan      1m42.809s  + 1.786s 24.  Riccardo Agostini	  Ferraris Dallara-Merc       1m43.044s  + 2.019s 25.  Andre Rudersdorf     Ma-con Dallara-VW           1m43.163s  + 2.140s 26.  Josh Hill	          Fortec Dallara-Merc         1m43.224s  + 2.201s 27.  Dmitry Suranovich	  Fortec Dallara-Merc         1m43.923s  + 2.909s 28.  Michela Cerruti  	  Ferraris Dallara-Merc       1m44.138s  + 3.115s 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/marciello-heads-barcelona-f3-test

William Ashton Lewis Jr Sterling Burton Marlin Mark Anthony Martin Jeremy Allan Mayfield James Christopher McMurray