Spa F3: Novalak tops practice ahead of Rasmussen
Clement Novalak took the top spot in FIA Formula 3 practice at Spa, taking the fastest time in the last minute of a foggy first session of the weekend.
The Trident driver, who sits sixth in the championship, topped the timesheet with a 2m05.330 – one of only two drivers to break into the 2m05s.
He finished ahead of HWA Racelab rookie Oliver Rasmussen, who set a 2m05.825, despite his best start of the season so far being 16th.
Campos Racing’s Lorenzo Colombo finished in third, less than eight-tenths behind the leader, with Trident driver Jack Doohan in fourth and Jak Crawford (Hitech Grand Prix) in fifth.
Drivers encountered some traffic ten minutes into the session as drivers began to set quicker times, with Alexander Smolyar topping the timesheet with a 2m07.924s, before going quicker with a 2m06.748s.
With 25 minutes to go, the yellow flags came out in sectors two and three after Ayumu Iwasa (Hitech Grand Prix) briefly span on the still-damp track.
Minutes later, they were waved again in sector two after Zdenek Chovanec came to a stop on track.
The rookie makes his F3 debut this weekend replacing Reshad de Gerus at Charouz Racing System, with Hunter Yeany driving in place of Enzo Fittipaldi.
The pair will see just 45 minutes of track time before qualifying takes place on Friday afternoon. Yeany fnished the session in 20th, with Chovanec in 24th.
Entering the last 20 minutes of the session, Jack Doohan, who took third place in the last feature race at the Hungaroring, led for Trident with a 2m06.356.
Colombo then took the top spot with a 2m06.100s, before he was pipped to the top spot by Rasmussen.
Matteo Nannini (HWA Racelab) and Trident’s David Schumacher came close to making contact in the last five minutes as the former attempted to finish his flying lap while the latter prepared for his.
Campos’ Amaury Cordeel encountered trouble as he made his way back to the pits at the end of the session, coming to a stop on the start-finish straight.
He is also under investigation for heading into the wrong pit lane at the end of the session.
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