Two down, one to go in the F3 triple-header

At the last event in Monaco, the first victory of the season was the highpoint of a generally positive upturn in performance since the start of the European leg of the calendar. For Martinius Stenshorne, it was his second podium of the season and he’ll be keen to keep fighting for those top-three positions now the season is nearing its midpoint.

Alongside him, Gerrard Xie, who improved his position by eight places in both the Sprint and the Feature races on the streets of Monte Carlo. The Rookie will certainly be feeling encouraged by his recent performances and he’ll be looking to maintain his current momentum to end the triple-header on a positive note.

The team welcomes another Rookie to the squad this weekend as Mexican driver Jesse Carrasquedo steps up for the next two rounds. He will have quite a steep learning curve but with plenty of international single-seater racing under his belt, he is looking to make the most of this opportunity and show that he is ready.

The Round 5 action begins just four days after we packed up the cars in Monaco and transported them 700 km west along the coast to a track that everyone is very familiar with. Having collected plenty of data here in pre-season testing, Barcelona will provide a good opportunity to benchmark the changes made by the team to its cars after Round 2.

The 4.657 km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is an ‘all-rounder’ with long straights and a variety of corners. What was until recently a slow chicane at the end of the lap has now been reconfigured into two super-fast corners, which has increased the overall high-speed nature of the track.

Consequently, the tyre choice for Barcelona is the Hard tyre, to manage the significant lateral forces generated in this circuit’s many fast corners. It will provide a real challenge for all of the drivers, who will need to carefully manage degradation through the race. Warm-up is likely to be aided by the high temperatures anticipated this weekend – expected to be 25°C.

In terms of overtaking prospects, Turn 1 provides the best opportunity, coming after the long DRS zone. Later in the lap, Turn 10 is a second possibility.

We head into Round 5 with Martinius Stenshorne continuing to lead the Hitech charge. He sits ninth in the Drivers’ Standings and while it won’t be easy for him to fight his way back up to the top three in the second half of the season, that will be his target.

Commenting on the weekend ahead, Paul Bellringer, Hitech’s F3 Team Manager said: “It has been another super-fast turnaround this week to be ready for the final event of the triple-header.”

The action gets underway on Friday with Free Practice scheduled for 09:55 local, followed by Qualifying for both races at 15:00.

On Saturday, the 21-lap Sprint Race begins at 10:05 ahead of the 25-lap Feature Race at 08:30 on Sunday morning.