American Rookie Gabby Chaves tops day one at Silverstone

Gabby Chaves

Addax Team’s rookie Gabby Chaves was the fastest man out on track today, after setting the best time of 1:51.449 on day one of official GP3 Series testing at Silverstone Circuit.

The GP3 Series teams gathered for the second of three pre-season tests, and were greeted with dry and sunny conditions this morning in Northamptonshire. Status Grand Prix was first to take to the track, with Antonio Felix Da Costa setting the benchmark time for the rest of the field. The Portuguese driver topped the time sheets until his lap time was bettered at the two-hour mark by reigning champions Lotus ART and newcomer Valtteri Bottas.

The remainder of the session was relatively quiet for the thirty strong young guns, until a final ten minute dash, which saw the Finn improve his personal best time with a 1:51.608 lap ahead of MW Arden’s Lewis Williamson and Simon Trummer. Any hope the rest of the field had of a last minute fight for the top spot were dashed when a red flag caused by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs thirty seconds from the end of the session halted proceedings. The checkered flag was shown and the top final top ten was set: Bottas, Williamson, Melker, Trummer, Muller, Costa, Quaife-Hobbs, Stockinger, Calado and Nunes.

After a rain-affected test in France just over three weeks ago the teams were no doubt hoping for a dry day of running today, but by the time the lights turned green in the afternoon the weather had turned with clouds appearing overhead. Sophomore driver Nico Mller was the early pace setter for Jenzer with a lap time of 1:51.596, while Chaves, Quaife-Hobbs, Williamson and rookie James Calado rounded out the top five.

However, shortly after the second red flag of the day – caused by MW Arden’s Mitch Evans – it was rookie Chaves who laid down the gauntlet to the rest of the field. The young American lapped the track two thousandths of a second quicker than the pole time set by Champion Esteban GutiÃ¨rrez in 2010. However, the arrival of rain meant the American’s lap time was to go unchallenged as the rest of the afternoon was run under damp conditions. There was one final red flag of the afternoon caused by Carlin’s rookie Kotaro Sakurai.

The test will continue tomorrow at 09:00 am local time.

Full morning session times:

POS	NO.	NAME	NAT	ENTRY	TIME	LAPS
1	2	Valtteri BOTTAS	FIN	Lotus ART	1:51.608	32
2	28	Lewis WILLIAMSON	GBR	MW Arden	1:51.688	31
3	31	Nigel MELKER	NED	RSC Mucke Motorsport	1:51.755	28
4	27	Simon TRUMMER	SUI	MW Arden	1:51.801	26
5	7	Nico MULLER	SUI	Jenzer Motorsport	1:51.816	26
6	5	Antonio Felix Da COSTA	POR	Status Grand Prix	1:51.821	41
7	10	Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS	GBR	Marussia Manor Racing	1:51.920	20
8	20	Marlon STOCKINGER	PHI	Atech CRS GP	1:52.017	27
9	3	James CALADO	GBR	Lotus ART	1:52.025	33
10	1	Pedro NUNES	BRA	Lotus ART	1:52.053	34
11	30	Michael CHRISTENSEN	DEN	RSC Mucke Motorsport	1:52.213	35
12	11	Rio HARYANTO	INA	Marussia Manor Racing	1:52.348	25
13	21	Nick YELLOLY	GBR	Atech CRS GP	1:52.422	18
14	26	Mitch EVANS	NZL	MW Arden	1:52.505	32
15	4	Alexander SIMS	GBR	Status Grand Prix	1:52.510	25
16	19	Tamas PAL KISS	HUN	Tech 1 Racing	1:52.518	30
17	17	Aaro VAINIO	FIN	Tech 1 Racing	1:52.556	25
18	24	Gabby CHAVES	USA	Addax Team	1:52.563	28
19	14	Conor DALY	USA	Carlin	1:52.777	33
20	12	Matias LAINE	FIN	Marussia Manor Racing	1:52.794	34
21	18	Andrea CALDARELLI	ITA	Tech 1 Racing	1:52.803	34
22	9	Vittorio GHIRELLI	ITA	Jenzer Motorsport	1:52.935	31
23	29	Willi STEINDL	AUT	RSC Mucke Motorsport	1:52.955	32
24	16	Kotaro SAKURAI	JPN	Carlin	1:53.009	28
25	22	Zoel AMBURG	SUI	Atech CRS GP	1:53.315	38
26	8	Maxim ZIMIN	RUS	Jenzer Motorsport	1:53.490	27
27	23	Thomas HYLKEMA	NED	Addax Team	1:53.563	40
28	15	Tom DILLMANN	FRA	Carlin	1:53.858	31
29	6	Ivan LUKASHEVICH	RUS	Status Grand Prix	1:54.344	36
30	25	Fernando MONJE	ESP	Addax Team	1:54.504	35

Full afternoon session times:

POS	NO	NAME	NAT	ENTRY	TIME	LAPS
1	24	Gabby CHAVES	USA	Addax Team	1:51.449	22
2	7	Nico MULLER	SUI	Jenzer Motorsport	1:51.596	19
3	28	Lewis WILLIAMSON	GBR	MW Arden	1:51.641	27
4	4	Alexander SIMS	GBR	Status Grand Prix	1:51.752	24
5	20	Marlon STOCKINGER	PHI	Atech CRS GP	1:51.775	11
6	10	Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS	GBR	Marussia Manor Racing	1:51.981	28
7	9	Vittorio GHIRELLI	ITA	Jenzer Motorsport	1:52.328	26
8	11	Rio HARYANTO	INA	Marussia Manor Racing	1:52.472	30
9	27	Simon TRUMMER	SUI	MW Arden	1:52.538	24
10	15	Tom DILLMANN	FRA	Carlin	1:52.557	19
11	26	Mitch EVANS	NZL	MW Arden	1:52.741	22
12	30	Michael CHRISTENSEN	DEN	RSC Mucke Motorsport	1:52.770	25
13	3	James CALADO	GBR	Lotus ART	1:52.886	29
14	5	Antonio Felix Da COSTA	POR	Status Grand Prix	1:52.940	23
15	25	Fernando MONJE	ESP	Addax Team	1:52.976	22
16	1	Pedro NUNES	BRA	Lotus ART	1:53.021	30
17	23	Thomas HYLKEMA	NED	Addax Team	1:53.081	18
18	12	Matias LAINE	FIN	Marussia Manor Racing	1:53.214	23
19	2	Valtteri BOTTAS	FIN	Lotus ART	1:53.249	31
20	17	Aaro VAINIO	FIN	Tech 1 Racing	1:53.263	19
21	8	Maxim ZIMIN	RUS	Jenzer Motorsport	1:53.436	24
22	22	Zoel AMBERG	SUI	Atech CRS GP	1:53.682	24
23	29	Willi STEINDL	AUT	RSC Mucke Motorsport	1:53.803	27
24	19	Tamas PAL KISS	HUN	Tech 1 Racing	1:53.895	27
25	16	Kotaro SAKURAI	JPN	Carlin	1:53.941	11
26	18	Andrea CALDARELLI	ITA	Tech 1 Racing	1:53.980	21
27	31	Nigel MELKER	NED	RSC Mucke Motorsport	1:53.989	27
28	14	Conor DALY	USA	Carlin	1:54.967	15
29	21	Nick YELLOLY	GBR	Atech CRS GP	1:55.075	20
30	6	Ivan LUKASHEVICH	RUS	Status Grand Prix	1:59.785	19