Barcelona GP3: Honda junior Fukuzumi leads first practice of 2017

Fukuzumi – a Honda Formula 1 junior driver – set a best time of 1m35.933s and led an ART Grand Prix 1-2-3-4 for much of practice.

But Jenzer Motorsport’s Arjun Maini improved in the closing stages of the 45-minute session to go second, 0.3s slower than Fukuzumi.

Marcos Siebert, who beat Mick Schumacher to the 2016 Italian Formula 4 title, slotted into third place on his first appearance in a GP3 race weekend.

Arden’s Leonardo Pulcini was another driver to move up the order late on and he finished fourth ahead of Mercedes F1 junior George Russell and his ART team-mate Jack Aitken – a Renault F1 Academy driver.

Fukuzumi had led ART’s charge to the top of the timesheets early on in the session and he stayed clear despite the late improvements from Maini, Siebert and Pulcini.

Niko Kari ended up seventh for Arden, ahead of Ryan Tveter, Steijn Schothorst and Raoul Hyman, who rounded out the top 10 for Campos Racing.

Santino Ferrucci was 11th, just in front of Anthoine Hubert and Trident’s Kevin Jorg.

Giuliano Alesi – son of former F1 race winner Jean – needed a push from his Trident mechanics in the pitlane as he rejoined the action shortly after halfway through the session on his way to 15th.

Sauber F1 development driver Tatiana Calderon finished 18th for DAMS.

Alex Kalinauckas / Autosport

Practice results

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	2	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	17	1'35.933
2	24	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	20	1'36.286	0.353
3	28	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	18	1'36.293	0.360
4	6	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	17	1'36.352	0.419
5	3	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	17	1'36.382	0.449
6	1	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	17	1'36.386	0.453
7	5	Niko Kari	Arden International	17	1'36.431	0.498
8	11	Ryan Tveter	Trident	14	1'36.441	0.508
9	7	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	17	1'36.455	0.522
10	27	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	21	1'36.517	0.584
11	14	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	18	1'36.521	0.588
12	4	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	18	1'36.619	0.686
13	9	Kevin Jörg	Trident	16	1'36.669	0.736
14	16	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	17	1'37.047	1.114
15	10	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	14	1'37.254	1.321
16	12	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	18	1'37.488	1.555
17	26	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	20	1'37.570	1.637
18	15	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	19	1'37.606	1.673
19	22	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	16	1'38.227	2.294