Patronise F1

The preparations for the 2011 GP3 Series began this week, with a three-day test in Portugal providing the ten teams with a chance to try out new talent for next year, but it was experienced faces that dominated proceedings. 

The opening day at the Estoril track was dominated by drivers already familiar with the GP3 car from 2010, with Swiss Jenzer Motorsport driver Nico Muller snatching top spot in the closing stages of the day-long session to usurp long-time leader and fellow GP3 'veteran' Roberto Merhi (Addax).

The best rookie award, and all-round impressive performance of the day award, went to the sensationally-named Tamas Pal Kiss, the Hungarian driver who just recently finished third in the Formula Renault UK series, who set the overall third quickest time of the day for the relatively hapless ATECH CRS GP outfit.

He finished ahead of another trio of experienced GP3 hands in Dutch driver Nigel Melker (Mucke), Michael Christensen (Status GP) and semi-famous surname Adrien Tambay (Manor Racing).

Next-best rookie driver was British driver James Calado, who took a creditable seventh place for the champion team ART, with another FRenault UK driver, Filipino-Swiss man Marlon Stockinger, taking eighth spot for ATECH.

The top ten were completed by two Carlin cars of Antonio Felix da Costa and Josef Newgarden, with another rookie, Formula Abarth race winner Zoel Amberg, taking 11th place.

 
Day 2

The second day saw a flurry of driver swapping between the teams, with all ten GP3 squads eager to try out as many new faces as they could manage over the three day test.

And it was one of the newcomers to the test for the second day that topped the times, with Scotsman Lewis Williamson topping the times for the ATECH squad by nearly two tenths of a second from Felix da Costa, who drove for Addax on day two.

Williamson, who came to the test fresh from finishing as a runner up in the British Formula Renault championship for Manor Racing, lapped slower than Muller's Day 1 top time, but it was enough for the GP3 freshman to end his first ever run in the car on top spot.

Felix da Costa had topped the times in the morning session, but failed to improve on his time in the afternoon. James Calado took third place in the standings for ART, the British F3 runner-up topping the early morning times before being overtaken, just ahead of Nigel Melker, who had another strong showing for Mucke Motorsport.

Michael Christensen was back with his 2010 GP3 team MW Arden, but was still fast, finishing fifth overall, with Brazilian driver Pedro Nunes sixth the second ART car, from Austrian German F3 driver Willi Steindl (Mucke) and the final ART car of Finnish F3 Euroseries driver Matias Laine.

Returning GP3 drivers Roberto Merhi (Addax) and Josef Newgarden (Carlin) rounded out the top ten places.

Elsewhere, impressive Day 1 runner Tamas Pal Kiss crashed off the track having switched to the Status Grand Prix squad for the day's running.

Day 3

The third and final day of the test saw the overall fastest times of the week-long test set, almost exclusively in the morning session as times tailed off throughout the day.

It was Frenchman Adrien Tambay who ended up top of the pile, getting back into a Manor Racing car after sitting out day two to end the fastest driver of the whole test session with a lap time of 1:30.973.

He was only a tenth of a second ahead of Williamson, though, who had another strong run to finish second overall, with the ATECH CRS GP driver also finishing top of the slower afternoon session as he continued to catch the eye of the GP3 team field.

Nigel Melker continued his strong three day test in third, ensuring that he ended up in the top four on each day of the rest for Mucke Motorsport. Pedro Nunes was fourth for ART Grand Prix, just ahead of his new team mate for day three, American driver and Italian F3 driver Gabriel Chaves, who ended his first day in a GP3 car in fifth place.

Sixth place was the new Formula BMW Europe champion Robin Frijns for Mark Webber's MW Arden team, ahead of GP3 returnee Dean Smith for Addax and Michael Christensen (Status GP).

Colombian driver Julian Leal was ninth for Addax, with the Kiwi driver Mitch Evans completing the top ten in the second MW Arden car.

Overall, then, it was a mixed-up three days in Estoril, but in amongst the experienced names at the top of the timesheets, it looks like motorsport might have another Lewis to keep track of in the future.

The drivers will have another chance to impress in the second post-season GP3 test at the Jerez track next week.