Beckmann tops Belgium Free Practice

David Beckmann

David Beckmann made progressive gains during GP3 Series Free Practice at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium to end the session on top of the timesheets. The German ace fired his way to the fastest time on his final flying lap with a 2:06.111 before the checkered flag, holding off from Trident teammates Pedro Piquet, Giuliano Alesi and Ryan Tveter for a 1-2-3-4 classification.

Tatiana Calderon was first to hit the road, and the session quickly opened with a planned virtual safety car period. The Jenzer Motorsport set the first timed lap, before the session was red flagged as a result of a technical issue. After a fix to the cars’ ECU was implemented as quickly as possible, the running resumed as Tveter led the entire field back onto the circuit.

Calderon’s leisurely benchmark time was quickly put in the shade by Tveter, who immediately dipped into the 2m09s on his first push lap around the circuit. Callum Ilott quickly dispatched the American from the top of the timing boards, finding a lap almost two seconds quicker before Beckmann managed to sneak past the ART Grand Prix driver by just under a tenth.

Briefly conceding his place at the top to Juan Manuel Correa, Beckmann was the first man into the 2m06s to wrest control of the session once more. From there, he continued to wind his benchmark time down, initially hacking two tenths out of his lap to keep ART’s Nikita Mazepin at bay before Tveter posted a time just 0.023 slower than his teammate.

Beckmann then found half a second over his best time, posting a 2:06.111 before the checkered flag to cement his place at the top – seeing off a late challenge from Piquet, who was just a tenth behind. Alesi nestled in between Piquet and Tveter for third, while Series leader Anthoine Hubert was the fastest of the ARTs in fifth – eclipsing Mazepin by 0.018s. Correa claimed the seventh-best time ahead of Jake Hughes (ART) and Jenzer teammate Calderon, while Ilott completed the top 10.

GP3 Series Technical Director Didier Perrin commented: “We experienced an issue with the programming of the ECU. Once we analyzed the problem, we asked for the session to be red flagged in order to reprogram the ECU of all cars as quickly as possible and ensure that all drivers benefited from the same amount of track time."

Results