The Swede, currently second in the championship, was 0.161 seconds faster than his new team-mate, Nick Cassidy (1:41.920 minutes). George Russell (Carlin, 1:41.934 minutes) secured third place at the 4.652-kilometre rollercoaster located in the Algarve hinterlands, thus being the best rookie on day two. Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark, 1:41.990 minutes), Markus Pommer (Motopark, 1:41.993) and Callum Ilott (Carlin, 1:42.020) completed the top six.

By finishing first, Sweden’s Rosenqvist was the clearly best of the three hot title favourites, on day two. While FIA Formula 3 European Championship leader Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:42.116 minutes) finished seventh and rookie Charles Leclerc (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:42.466 minutes), currently third in the championship standings, had to settle for finishing 15th. Giovinazzi travelled to Portugal straight from Moscow were he made his DTM debut, last weekend. “Re-adapting to the Formula 3 car was no problem at all,” revealed the 21-year old Italian. “We tried several things, gathered a lot of data and are going to analyse these data, now. Having finished seventh I was just 0.357 second behind the quickest and that isn’t too much.”

Behind Felix Rosenqvist, Nick Cassidy und George Russell, Sérgio Sette Câmara secured fourth position. “The day of testing was okay,” said the 17-year old Motopark driver. “I think we did a good job, the team worked hard and my car was competitive.” Sette Câmara was the best representative of his squad although the lead over his team-mate Markus Pommer (0.003 seconds) was extremely tiny. And behind the German, the second rookie, Briton Callum Ilott, followed in sixth. “The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve is an interesting circuit and we had two good days of testing. Having finished sixth is a fine result. Altogether, I’m rather happy with my improvements in my first year on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship grid and in single-seater racing but there still are several things I have to learn.”

Antonio Giovinazzi, returnee Alexander Sims (Hitech GP, 1:42.210 minutes) and rookie Raoul Hyman (Team West-Tec F3, 1:42.323) finished seventh, eighth and ninth respectively. “It wasn’t exactly what I would call an easy day,” said 19-year old South African Hyman. “The wind was blowing stronger and stronger and the temperatures rose more and more. In the morning session, on slightly used tyres, I was the quickest but I wasn’t able to make maximum use of the fresh set of tyres as I didn’t find a free lap. Later in the session – and in the afternoon – we focused on race simulations. Generally, a top-10 position isn’t too bad but I had set myself the goal to make it to the top 5.”

Pietro Fittipaldi (Fortec Motorsports, 1:42.337 minutes) who completed the top 10 came to a largely positive conclusion: “It all was very close and with a slight improvement you can gain several positions,” said the Brazilian. “I like Portimão’s circuit a lot and think that it’s one of the most difficult European circuits, with its numerous blind corners.”

Following a day of rest, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship young guns will be back in action as early as on Friday. Then, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship is going to kick off its ninth race meeting of the season, at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.