Series Estoril test report day 2

Rookie Lewis Williamson tops Day 2 in Estoril

There was a new driver in Portugal today for the second day of post-season testing, and he certainly caught the attention of the GP3 paddock. 20-year old Brit Lewis Williamson topped the times sheets this afternoon with his best laptime of 1:31.431, two tenths quicker than Nigel Melker and this morning's fastest man Antonio Felix Da Costa.

There were a few driver changes for day two: Rio Haryanto swapped back to his old team Manor Racing, and was replaced at ART by Matias Laine. Ivan Lukashevich was back in his #5 Status GP car; Miki Monras swapped to Tech 1 Racing and was replaced at Addax by local man Felix Da Costa, who in turn was replaced by British driver Richard Bradley at Carlin. Julian Leal joined Addax Team, European Formula BMW Champion Robin Frijns joined MW Arden for his first taste of a GP3 car, Marlon Stockinger replaced yesterday's quickest man Nico Muller at Jenzer and Lewis Williamson joined Atech CRS GP.

The morning session started under clear blue skies, and once again newbie James Calado was first to top the time sheets in his ART Grand Prix car, but in the end he couldn't match the pace of local man Antonio Felix Da Costa, who ended the session on top for Addax Team at his home track with a time of 1:31.627. Nigel Melker was back on form in his RSC Mucke Motorsport machine, and was running in the top two spots until the end of the session when he was just edged out by Calado - the British driver finishing just 0.103 seconds ahead of the Dutchman.

Felix Da Costa immediately took his place at the top of the timesheets again in the afternoon session and was looking untouchable, but by the time the chequered flag fell rookie Williamson and Melker had both edged ahead. Michael Christensen was quick again for Status and finished fourth, improving his time from this morning by over three tenths. RSC Mucke Motorsport's Willi Steindl was next quickest rookie in fifth, and Pedro Nunes continued his strong performance for ART finishing sixth.

There were a splattering of red flags throughout the day, but the only incident of note came when Tamas P'al Kiss went off and damaged the front end of his Status GP car. The top 18 cars in both sessions were separated by just one second showing how competitive the Series continues to be.

The three day test concludes tomorrow.

-source: gp3