Sergio Campana topped the timesheets in the first Free Practice session on the Moulay El Hassan circuit in Marrakech. The reigning Italian F3 Champion posted the fastest lap right in the last minutes of a session that was made particularly tricky by a brief rain shower that dampened the track with just 40 minutes to the green light.

All the drivers started on wet tyres and then started fitting slicks 10 minutes into the session, but the battle for the fastest lap took place only in the last five minutes, when the track was nearly dry and the track improving lap after lap.

In those conditions Campana stopped the clock on a 1’30”892 that was enough to put him on top, just 0.02 ahead of Sergey Sirotkin. After the session the MLR71 driver was very happy of such a weekend start: “The car felt good straight out of the box and as soon as the racing line got dry I started pushing. I know that there’s room for improvement, I expect the grip to be much better in the second Practice”.

After an harmless spin early in the session, Quaife-Hobbs upped his pace in the last minutes and posted the third quickest time with a 1’31”091, preceeding Chris Van der Drift by nearly a full second. The kiwi driver of Manor MP was just 0.004 quicker than fifth placed Pål Varhaug, who was quite satisfied of his session: “It was a good session, the car feels good and I believe we have what it takes to be competitive. In the last laps I was supposed to improve my laptime a lot, but I got stuck into traffic and wasted a couple of good laps. Anyway it’s fine, the track is more or less as I expected but I have to say that the straights are really bumpy, there’s a lot of shaking going on”.

Victor Guerin was P6 ahead of returnee Giacomo Ricci, again driving for Zele Racing as in the Monza season opener. Giancarlo Serenelli was a good 8th with 1’32”698, preceeding the quickest among the Campos Racing drivers, Facu Regalia: “I used all my overboosts in the first part of the session – said the Argentinian - so at the end of the session when the track was improving I had none left. I also had a little problem with the dashboard, but we’ll fix it for the second practice. We used this session mainly to understand the track, it’s not too tight but it’s very bumpy and you can’t really use the kerbs in the chicanes. The car jumps a lot and you risk being launched into the wall”.

Closing the top ten was Daniel de Jong with the second Manor MP entry.

Marrakech, Free Practice 1

1.- Sergio CAMPANA (MLR 71), 1:30.892
2.- Sergey SIROTKIN (Euronova Racing), 1:30.919
3.- Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS (Supernova International), 1:31.091
4.- Chris VAN DER DRIFT (Manor MP Motorsport), 1:31.926
5.- Pål VARHAUG (Virtuosi UK), 1:31.930
6.- Victor GUERIN (Supernova International), 1:32.383
7.- Giacomo RICCI (Zele Racing), 1:32.604
8.- Giancarlo SERENELLI (Ombra Racing), 1:32.698
9.- Facu REGALIA (Campos Racing), 1:32.750
10.- Daniel DE JONG (Manor MP Motorsport), 1:32.877
11.- Yann CUNHA (Ombra Racing), 1:32.957
12.- Giuseppe CIPRIANI (Campos Racing), 1:33.188
13.- Antonio SPAVONE (Euronova Racing), 1:33.420
14.- Max SNEGIREV (Campos Racing), 1:34.260
15.- Francesco DRACONE (Virtuosi UK), 1:36.347
16.- Michele LA ROSA (MLR 71), 1:43.112


Filippo Zanier