Joel Eriksson picked up where he left off in Budapest at the weekend to once again feature near the very top of the times as FIA Formula 3 European Championship pre-season testing came to a close in Austria this week.
Team Motopark racer Eriksson went sixth quickest on the opening day of running at the Red Bull Ring on Tuesday, before taking fourth on the final day of work on Wednesday.
Much like in last week’s test in Hungary, the F3 field again appeared ferociously close, with the entire 19-car grid covered by less than one second around the 4.3 km Styrian circuit.
Eriksson finished the test fourth quickest on aggregate, 0.148s behind overall pace-setter Callum Ilott (GBR) and just one hundredth of a second down on second-placed 2016 championship runner-up Maximilian Günther (GER).
“It’s been another two good days of testing,” says Joel Eriksson. “Things have been going well both here and in Budapest, so I’m feeling really confident and strong going into the season. Having said that, it does seem to be very, very close, but testing is testing and you never really know until the first race. We will continue to work hard and hopefully we’ll turn up at Silverstone with that crucial edge. I’m really happy with how things have gone and I’m looking forward to the new season.”
The 2017 FIA F3 European Championship springs into life on April 14-16, and will mark Joel Eriksson’s second season of F3 racing. The Swede claimed rookie honours in the championship last year, and also won the Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort (NED).
