Boccolacci tops first day in Valencia

Dorian Boccolacci has carried over his Barcelona form to the new pre-season GP3 Series test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, setting the fastest time of the first day in the morning session with a time of 1:21.191 to lead the way ahead of Jack Aitken and George Russell, who topped the afternoon session with a late lap of 1:21.814 ahead of Alessio Lorandi and Boccolacci.

The final pre-season test session opened under warm and sunny conditions at the Spanish circuit, with the first hour set aside for installation runs and preparing the cars: Arjun Maini, Santino Ferrucci Russell and Lorandi all topped the first session before a late rush for the honours with 15 minutes remaining. Anthoine Hubert and Jack Aitken briefly grabbed P1, but with just minutes remaining Boccolacci claimed it by a tenth, leaving no time for his rivals to push harder.

Temperatures increased for the afternoon session, which saw Niko Kari lead the way early on before Raoul Hyman grabbed the top spot just after the halfway mark in a session which was briefly delayed with red flags, for Giuliano Alesi and the South African. Russell saw his chance just after the session restarted for the second time, pinching P1 with just ten minutes remaining, with Lorandi and Boccolacci filling the top 3 just moments later.

The teams will return to the circuit for the final day of the test tomorrow morning at 9.00 local time.

Day 1 Morning results

Pos	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1:21.191	31
2.	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1:21.292	39
3.	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1:21.317	41
4.	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1:21.454	40
5.	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1:21.495	32
6.	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1:21.500	35
7.	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1:21.577	29
8.	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1:21.627	41
9.	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1:21.636	36
10.	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1:21.683	38
11.	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1:21.711	24
12.	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1:21.715	25
13.	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1:21.781	21
14.	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1:21.874	35
15.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:21.918	34
16.	Kevin JÃ¶rg	Trident	1:22.054	27
17.	Niko Kari	Arden International	1:22.076	22
18.	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1:22.204	34
19.	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1:22.384	38

Day 1 Afternoon results

Pos	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1:21.814	54
2.	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1:21.816	22
3.	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1:21.834	47
4.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:21.897	28
5.	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1:21.946	53
6.	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1:21.951	47
7.	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1:22.036	51
8.	Niko Kari	Arden International	1:22.206	53
9.	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1:22.286	45
10.	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1:22.312	24
11.	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1:22.352	37
12.	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1:22.450	53
13.	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1:22.498	44
14.	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1:22.536	27
15.	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1:22.568	46
16.	Kevin JÃ¶rg	Trident	1:22.608	43
17.	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1:22.989	41
18.	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1:23.627	39
19.	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1:24.592	48