Van Amersfoort Racing’s Andreas Estner set the pace on the first day of Euroformula pre-season testing at Hockenheim, marking the official introduction of the new Dallara 320. Estner’s best lap in the halo-shod car, a successor to the Dallara F312/F317, was 0.225 seconds shy of the official series track record set last year. The German topped the morning session by 0.018s from fellow ex-FIA Formula 3 Championship driver Yifei Ye, who was driving for Motopark offshoot CryptoTower Racing Team. Just 0.042s behind Ye was one of the Double R Racing cars, which topped the afternoon session, with the top three being clear of the rest of the attending drivers. Niklas Krutten was fourth fastest for the main Motopark team, and just ahead of Estner’s brother and team-mate Sebastian. MP Motorsport’s FIA F3 driver Lukas Dunner, who is linked to a Euroformula return with MP offshoot Manor Competition after finishing third in the points last year with Teo Martin Motorsport, joined Ye in the CryptoTower garage and was 0.316s off the pace in sixth. Behind him was VAR’s Alexandre Bardinon, who unlike most set his best lap in the afternoon session. Double R was the only one of the British teams at the test, while Spanish squad Drivex School is continuing private testing in its home country. Several ADAC Formula teams were also on track at Hockenheim, with Mucke Motorsport’s Joshua Duerksen and Josef Knopp setting the pace. R-ace GP ran top karter and SMP Racing junior Kirill Smal and French F4-bound Romain Leroux in place of two of its signed drivers. Test results: Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Andreas Estner Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.694s 120
2 Yifei Ye CryptoTower 1m31.712s +0.018s 82
3 Driver #2 Double R Racing 1m31.754s +0.060s 79
4 Niklas Krutten Motopark 1m31.932s +0.238s 67
5 Sebastian Estner Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.939s +0.245s 105
6 Lukas Dunner CryptoTower 1m32.010s +0.316s 84
7 Alexandre Bardinon Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.134s +0.440s 91
8 Ayrton Simmons Double R Racing 1m32.473s +0.779s 79
9 Cameron Das Motopark 1m32.616s +0.922s 66
10 Rui Andrade CryptoTower 1m32.679s +0.985s 82
11 Manuel Maldonado Motopark 1m32.725s +1.031s 70