Look at how close these margins get when everyone finally bolts on fresh rubber. Kean Nakamura-Berta put Trident at the very head of the timesheets on Day 1 of the post-season test at Jerez, laying down a sharp 1:31.169 in the afternoon session that nobody else could quite match.
It was a busy opening day under the Spanish sun. The morning kicked off quietly with the usual installation laps before AIX Racing broke the silence, sending out James Egozi—who clocked a 1:34.526 before shaving it down to a 1:32.680—to run quicker than teammate Dion Gowda. MP Motorsport's Matteo De Palo then took his turn at the front, pushing down to a 1:32.353 and then a 1:31.867, with Maciej Gladysz sliding into P2, some 0.582s back from his teammate. Kanato Le sliced that margin down for Hitech before DAMS Lucas Oil representative Miguel Costa grabbed the top spot with a 1:31.829.
Then came the reigning teams' champions. Campos Racing flexed their muscles when Ernesto Rivera bolted on a fresh set of Mediums to fire in a 1:31.217, leading teammate Mattia Colnaghi by over three-tenths. Enzo Deligny managed to muscle his way into P2 late in the morning, leaving Rivera to lead the mid-day break ahead of Deligny, Colnaghi, Alessandro Giusti, and Alexander Abkhazava.
Afternoon running brought a fresh round of shuffling. Rivera picked right back up where he left off, though Trident's Niccolò Maccagnani quickly shoved him down to second with a 1:31.632. Long runs dominated the middle hours of the session, though Rashid Al Dhaheri managed to climb into fourth ahead of Taito Kato, and Costa kept his strong day rolling by putting DAMS into third.
Then the teams strapped on fresh Hard tyres for the dying stages, and the times tumbled. Nakamura-Berta unleashed his 1:31.169 to seize the day, immediately followed across the stripe by teammate Maccagnani to cement a Trident 1-2, with the Italian ending just 0.044s shy of his stablemate. Colnaghi mounted a frantic late charge for Campos that left him a microscopic 0.002s away from the leading time, while Rivera slotted into P3, a mere 0.011s off the pace.
Proceedings came to a slightly chaotic halt in the final minutes when DAMS Lucas Oil's Abkhazava ground to a halt on track, bringing out flags that kept the session frozen until the end. When the dust settled, Nakamura-Berta sat proudly on top of the overall classification ahead of Colnaghi, Rivera, Maccagnani, and Giusti, with Egozi, Kato, De Palo, Sebastian Wheldon, and Emmanuele Olivieri rounding out the top ten. Down the order, post-session scrutineering caught up with Car 29 after it failed to provide the minimum required amount of fuel, wiping all of its afternoon laptimes, while Car 26 lost every single afternoon time after being found underweight.
Thankfully, there is no waiting long to see if anyone can strike back. The track fires up again at 09:00 local time tomorrow morning for the final day of testing.
