Crawford sets the pace for Prema on day two of F3 test in Valencia

Red Bull junior Jak Crawford set the pace on day two of Formula 3 testing at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.

Crawford was in action for reigning champions Prema and looked well at home with the Italian team. 

The 16-year-old endured an inconsistent maiden season in the series, finishing 13th in the drivers’ championship with one podium to his name.

Crawford took to the top of the timesheets with a 1m21.368s in the morning session.

In the afternoon, Franco Colapinto was quickest for MP Motorsport, just under 0.4s shy of Crawford’s time from this morning.

Morning

Crawford took to the top of the timesheets in the second hour of running in Valencia, toppling Gregoire Saucy, who continues to impress for ART Grand Prix.

Saucy was just 0.079s down on Crawford as he completed 55 laps of the Spanish circuit in the morning session.

Caio Collet led the way at one point for MP Motorsport, ultimately ending the session in fourth, just over a tenth off the pace.

The top 10 in the morning was: Crawford, Saucy, Stanek, Collet, Doohan, Bearman, Maloney, Vidales, Frederick and Ushijima.

Afternoon

Colapinto headed the timesheets in the afternoon session, with times on the whole slower than in the morning due to teams switching their focus to longer runs or simply not having fresh tyres to fit.

The MP Motorsport driver set 51 laps in the afternoon session, ending the day 0.030s ahead of Saucy.

Collet was third ahead of Mercedes F1 junior Paul Aron.

Aron was in action for Prema after finishing third with the Italian outfit in the Formula Regional European Championship. 

The top 10 in the afternoon was: Colapinto, Saucy, Collet, Aron, Stanek, Frederick, Maloney, Crawford, Vidales and Bearman.

Testing in Valencia for F3 concludes tomorrow.