The FIA F3 European Championship weekend in Pau got underway with two wet/dry free practice sessions on Friday morning.
Joel went third fastest in the first of the two 40-minute sessions, in which everybody ran on wet tyres following overnight rain, heralding a promising start on the fast and challenging French street track.
As the circuit dried out in the second session, however, Joel and Team Motopark timed the switch to slicks slightly wrong, which meant Joel was not running when the track was at its driest. As a result, he wound up down in 12th place on the timesheets, 1.7 seconds down on pace-setter Callum Ilott.
Practice ran surprisingly incident-free despite the treacherous conditions, setting the stage for an exciting battle this afternoon when the first qualifying session of the weekend takes place.
Reminder: Pau qualifying format and groups
Next session: Qualifying 1, 15.25 local time (GMT+02:00).
Comment, Joel:
“A good and trouble-free start to the weekend. I was feeling really confident in the rain early on, and although we didn’t time our run on slicks very well, I still managed to get quite a good feel for the car in the drier conditions too. Let’s hope for a strong qualifying showing this afternoon.”
RESULTS – Free Practice
