Stenshorne sets sights on top 12 in Qualifying after topping Barcelona Practice

Martinius Stenshorne was pleased to finish with the fastest time in the Barcelona Free Practice session, but he still believes there is still plenty of work to do ahead of Qualifying later today.

With plenty of the drivers having already completed their fastest laps, the Hitech Pulse-Eight left it till late to send their trio of cars out for their first push efforts.

Luke Browning crossed the line first to set a time of 1:28.976 to go up to third, but he was pushed down to P4 when his teammate Stenshorne went fastest with a 1:28.774 moments later. Cian Shields joined them in the top 10 moments later when he went up to P8.

PRACTICE: Stenshorne leads the way in Barcelona

The Norwegian’s time went unbeaten during the session was stopped following Campos Racing’s Mari Boya ending up in the barrier at Turn 1, bringing out the Red Flags.

It means for the first time this year a rookie topped the timesheets in Free Practice, and it is something that definitely pleases Stenshorne.

“It was not too bad,” said Stenshorne reflecting on his first 45 minutes on track. “It's a good start to the weekend, we only did one lap in the end because we went out quite late, but it was a good session.

“We finished P1 in Practice for the first time this season, so I'm happy with that but there is still a lot of work to do before Qualifying.”

“In the end we couldn't feel too much in Practice because we only did one push lap. I think it's going to be quite tricky, we won't have too many laps in Qualifying so we will see how it goes but definitely looking forward to it.”

Talking through the performance in his Hitech #15 car, Stenshorne continued: “The car felt quite good, but the track conditions are expected to change a lot for Qualifying.

“It's going to get a lot faster, so there are things we have to adapt on the car, and we will be looking into that between now and then.”

Stenshorne will now focus his attentions on Qualifying where he is hoping to find a place in the top 12 in the hopes of being in with a chance of scoring points in both the Sprint and Feature Races.

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He has achieved a top 12 Quali result just once this season in Melbourne, where he qualified 11th. He then converted his first Formula 3 front row start into a maiden victory in the Sprint.

A repeat of that would be more than welcomed but for now he will be working with his engineers to get his car in the right window for the Pole Position shootout.

“It's about helping the car be ready for different conditions in terms of setup but also in my driving style,” he says. “We are going to have to look into the data to see how we have to adapt for when the track gets better, apart from that just get some lunch in and get ready for Qualifying.

“I hope we can qualify in the top 12 again, that would be nice to be inside that reverse grid, so top 12 is the goal.”