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RIFFITHS18 APRIL 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 7PIT + PADDOCKFORMULA 3When you’ve got Ferrari Driver Academy
prospects at Prema Racing, Renault F
juniors at ART Grand Prix, and a smattering
of Red Bull Juniors dotted around the field,
it’s logical to look no further for the likely
pacesetters in the new-for-2o19 FIA
Formula 3 Championship.
But the unaffiliated 20-year-old Roman
Leonardo Pulcini has other ideas. His career
to date hasn’t been meteoric, although he
was a rival of Lance Stroll’s in the 2014
Italian F4 campaign, and crushed Ferdinand
Habsburg and new IndyCar star Colton
Herta as he romped to the 2016 Euroformula
Open crown. After a strong 2018 in GP- fourth in the points – he has been quick
in F3 testing and topped both days of last
week’s pre-season running at Barcelona.
Pulcini (right, top) is lining up with
Silverstone-based Hitech GP. His fastest
time on Tuesday was inconclusive – that
day was rain-affected – but he led the way
on Wednesday morning as the field went
on qualifying-style performance runs.
ART’s Renault pair Christian Lundgaard
Pulcini steals the thunder of the F1 juniors
and Max Fewtrell – fresh from battling for
the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup – were
next, with Lundgaard (right, bottom) trailing
Pulcini by 0.147 seconds. Campos Racing’s
Alex Peroni was fourth, but did trigger a red
flag, while Jehan Daruvala led Prema’s trio.
The field is now complete, with German
F4 graduate Andreas Estner at Jenzer
Motorsport taking the 30th and final seat.
MARCUS SIMMONSTOP 1O TIMES, BARCELONA, 9-10 APRIL
POS DRIVER (TEAM) TIME
1 Leonardo Pulcini (Hitech) 1m32.222s
2 Christian Lundgaard (ART) 1m32.369s
3 Max Fewtrell (ART) 1m32.429s
4 Alex Peroni (Campos) 1m32.460s
5 Jehan Daruvala (Prema) 1m32.507s
6 Liam Lawson (MP) 1m32.621s
7 Sebastian Fernandez (Campos) 1m32.627s
8 David Beckmann (ART) 1m32.642s
9 Robert Shwartzman (Prema) 1m32.712s
10 Richard Verschoor (MP) 1m32.722sFORMULA 1 Damon Hill drove the Lotus 49B in which his father Graham won the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix at Shanghai last weekend as part of F1’s celebration
of 1000 world championship races. “It was great fun,” said Hill. “I’ve driven 49s before, but I’ve never pushed them, although you’ve got a bit of space here.”
The car, chassis R10, is also ex-Jochen Rindt/Emerson Fittipaldi/Ben Anderson (see last week’s Autosport track test!). Photograph by Motorsport Images/Hone