Mercedes junior Russell tops Day 1 of GP3 testing

Russell, who became affiliated with Mercedes during the off-season, set a time of 1m27.606s in the afternoon session.

The majority of the morning running was hit by rainy, windy weather conditions, and only a single lap was completed on slicks, by Raoul Hyman, who ended up first by over five seconds as a result.

In the afternoon, the field immediately lowered the benchmark set by Hyman - who is testing with Campos but isn't confirmed by the team yet - with ART's Nirei Fukuzumi, Italians Leonardo Pulcini and Alessio Lorandi, as well as Arjun Maini all leading at one point.

In the end, it was Russell taking the lead, narrowly edging out his teammate Fukuzumi.

Hyman completed a strong day in third, less than a tenth behind Russell.

The rest of the field, led by a third ART car of Anthoine Hubert, was a further four tenths down.

Maini, who will kick off his first full-time GP3 season, was fifth, followed by Ferrari junior Giuliano Alesi and Dorian Boccolacci.

The latter and Ryan Tveter, both yet to be confirmed to race in GP3 this year, drove the two free cars of Trident during the day.

Renault's Jack Aitken brought a fourth ART into the top eight ahead of Red Bull and Haas proteges Niko Kari and Santino Ferrucci.

Day 1 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Morning	Afternoon
1	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1:39.217	1:27.606
2	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1:39.648	1:27.685
3	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:31.539	1:27.705
4	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1:39.681	1:28.113
5	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1:38.017	1:28.147
6	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1:36.960	1:28.152
7	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1:38.602	1:28.185
8	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1:40.710	1:28.211
9	Niko Kari	Arden International	1:36.908	1:28.478
10	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1:36.930	1:28.489
11	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1:37.127	1:28.602
12	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1:37.233	1:28.641
13	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1:37.948	1:28.781
14	Kevin Jorg	Trident	1:40.483	1:28.820
15	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1:38.014	1:28.841
16	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1:37.530	1:28.892
17	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1:38.633	1:29.084
18	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1:39.601	1:29.504
19	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1:37.764	--