Ugo Ugochukwu was the fastest driver in the only free practice session for the opening round of Formula 3. In the session held at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia, on Thursday night (5) Brasília time, the Campos Racing driver set a time of 1min34s607 on his best lap.
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Second place ended up in the hands of Brando Badoer, a Rodin driver who was outperformed by 0s427 by Ugochukwu. Noah Stromsted, with Trident equipment, took third place, followed by Théophile Nael, fourth with Campos Racing. The top five group also included Alessandro Giusti from MP Motorsport.
Brad Benavides, a driver for AIX Racing, completed the practice with the sixth fastest time, finishing ahead of Pedro Clerot, a Brazilian making his F3 debut who finished seventh with Rodin. Nicola Lacorte from DAMS, Christian Ho from Rodin, and Louis Sharp from Prema closed out the top 10. Fefo Barrichello finished the practice in 30th position with an AIX car.
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The activity that opened the season ended under a red flag. Argentine Mattia Colnaghi, from MP Motorsport, stopped on the track with just a few minutes remaining on the clock for the end of the practice in Melbourne. With no time to remove the car, the session was ended.
Starting at midnight this Friday, the qualifying session will be held to determine the starting positions for the two races of the weekend. The Sprint is scheduled for 21:15 on the same day. The main race will start at 18:50 on Saturday.
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