Bahrain F3: Stanek tops practice ahead of Saucy and Leclerc

The Trident driver, who joins the team from Hitech Grand Prix for his third season in the series, set a 1m48.012s to top the timesheets on Friday morning.

Rookies Saucy (ART Grand Prix) and Franco Colapinto, driving for new outfit Van Amersfoort Racing, had been trading times at the top of the timesheet before Stanek took the top spot with 15 minutes remaining of the sole practice session.

It is the first time the series races at Bahrain International Circuit, having undertaken its pre-season test here earlier this month.

Ferrari Drivers’ Academy member Leclerc, who had been sat in P8, went second-quickest with seven minutes remaining of the session, setting a 1m48.090s, before he was pushed into third by reigning Formula Regional European champion Saucy.

Leclerc’s Prema teammates also finished in the top seven, with fellow FDA member Ollie Bearman and Red Bull junior Jak Crawford in sixth and seventh respectively.

Prema, the reigning drivers’ champion with with Dennis Hauger, will be hoping to clinch the teams’ championship this year after being narrowly beaten by Trident last season.

F3 has just one practice session ahead of today’s qualifying, with the new format seeing one reverse-grid sprint race on Saturday and a feature race on Sunday.

Alexander Smolyar went quickest 10 minutes into the session as the first representative laps were set, leading an MP Motorsport 1-2-3 with a 1m49.458s from Kush Maini and Caio Collet.

The Russian driver had previously said he would not compete in F3 or any international racing this season as sanctions were imposed on drivers from the country amid the war in Ukraine.

But he appeared on the series’ entry list for this weekend as an Authorised Neutral Driver under the FIA flag.

As the times ramped up, Juan Manuel Correa topped the timesheets with a third of the session’s running complete, setting a 1m48.642s to go four tenths clear of Colapinto as the first driver to break the 1m48s barrier.

The ART Grand Prix driver returned to racing last season having been forced to sit out 2020 after suffering horrific injuries in the FIA Formula 2 crash at Spa in 2019 which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert.

Teammate Saucy was the second to head into the 1m48s, slotting into P2 just 0.05s behind Correa.

He traded spots with Colapinto, who briefly went quickest, before regaining the top spot with a 1m48.099s.

Reigning champion Prema was late out the garage, with its three drivers only emerging from the pits with 20 minutes of running remaining.

Bearman and Crawford went fourth and fifth respectively on their first flying laps, with Leclerc slotting into P12, before managing to move up to P8 on his next attempt with a 1m48.681s.

Isack Hadjar, who led the second and third days of the pre-season test, went seventh fastest for Hitech on his first flying lap, setting a 1m48.665s.

Just one second covered the top 15 with 15 minutes remaining, with Stanek going quickest with a 1m48.012s.

Much of the field headed into the pits for a brief break before heading out for the final 10 minutes of the session.

There was a brief yellow flag in sector 1 as Reece Ushijima came to a stop on track, but he was able to get the car going again without causing much disruption to running.

Victor Martins, the highest-placed returning driver from last season, only managed P12. The Alpine Academy driver joins ART from MP Motorsport this season.

Collet, who also enters his second year in the series, put in 18 laps, the most of any driver, but ended up in P17 having been near the top of the times earlier in the session.

Bahrain F3 - Practice results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Roman Staněk	Trident	1'48.012
2	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	1'48.036	0.024
3	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	1'48.090	0.078
4	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP	1'48.285	0.273
5	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'48.402	0.390
6	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	1'48.419	0.407
7	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	1'48.428	0.416
8	Rafael Villagómez	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'48.470	0.458
9	Alexander Smolyar	MP Motorsport	1'48.557	0.545
10	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	1'48.642	0.630
11	Zane Maloney	Trident	1'48.736	0.724
12	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	1'48.782	0.770
13	Jonny Edgar	Trident	1'48.795	0.783
14	David Vidales	Campos Racing	1'48.802	0.790
15	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'48.802	0.790
16	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	1'48.869	0.857
17	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	1'48.889	0.877
18	Niko Kari	Jenzer Motorsport	1'49.115	1.103
19	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	1'49.125	1.113
20	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	1'49.188	1.176
21	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	1'49.205	1.193
22	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	1'49.270	1.258
23	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	1'49.445	1.433
24	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	1'49.475	1.463
25	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	1'49.557	1.545
26	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	1'49.570	1.558
27	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	1'49.641	1.629
28	Ayrton Simmons	Charouz Racing System	1'49.708	1.696
29	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	1'49.724	1.712
30	Brad Benavides	Carlin	1'50.193	2.181
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