Beckmann, Norris lead wet Spa F3 test day

David Beckmann topped a wet European Formula 3 test at Spa, with Lando Norris heading the second session as the field gears up for this weekend’s 24 Hours support round.

Beckmann, 17, stamped his time in early in the day before heavier rain wiped out any chance of improvement for much of the morning session.

The German’s Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen set three laps quicker than the best anyone else could manage, and finished the opening three hours of running 1.111 seconds clear.

Teammate and title contender Joel Eriksson was one of the few to improve as the track became less wet in the closing stages, his time lifting him to second position ahead of Carlin driver Norris.

Next up were Van Amersfoort Racing pairing Joey Mawson and Pedro Piquet, with Callum Ilott rounding out the top six in the leading Prema Powerteam entry.

The two-hour lunchtime session again featured most of the quick times being set relatively early on, and Norris’s best was never beaten, the McLaren junior lapping just 0.132s short of Beckmann’s morning effort.

Again there was a minor flurry of late improvements, with Beckmann leapfrogging Ilott on the final lap as the chequered flag flew to lift himself to second place, although he remained 0.342s adrift of Norris’s session topper.

Eriksson was fourth this time, ahead of Prema’s championship leader Maximilian Gunther, who bounced back from a crash in the morning session.

Force India protege Jehan Daruvala was another to improve on the final lap, lifting his Carlin car to sixth in the session.

Testing times:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Morning	Afternoon
1	David Beckmann	Motopark	2'31.404	2'31.878
2	Lando Norris	Carlin	2'32.566	2'31.536
3	Callum Ilott	Prema Powerteam	2'32.970	2'31.943
4	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	2'32.515	2'32.435
5	Maximilian Gunther	Prema Powerteam	2'33.427	2'32.596
6	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	2'33.425	2'32.621
7	Ralf Aron	Hitech GP	2'33.106	2'32.669
8	Joey Mawson	Van Amersfoort Racing	2'32.692	2'33.665
9	Guan Yu Zhou	Prema Powerteam	2'33.045	2'32.727
10	Jake Hughes	Hitech GP	2'33.079	2'32.807
11	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing	2'32.828	2'33.936
12	Ferdinand Habsburg	Carlin	2'33.468	2'32.919
13	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	2'34.255	2'32.958
14	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech GP	2'33.152	2'34.322
15	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing	2'33.297	2'33.409
16	Max Defourny	Van Amersfoort Racing	2'33.915	2'33.303
17	Keyvan Andres	Motopark	2'33.957	2'33.335
18	Marino Sato	Motopark	2'33.720	2'33.778
19	Ameya Vaidyanathan	Carlin	2'37.270	2'34.511