Ernesto Rivera leads Campos charge in Jerez F3 test morning

Ernesto Rivera led the opening morning of Formula 3 post-season testing at Jerez, setting a 1:31.677 to head Enzo Deligny and Mattia Colnaghi. A series of late improvements reshaped the order, but the timing offered only a snapshot of testing rather than evidence of a competitive hierarchy. The session took place on 20 October 2026; this preview of the Jerez and Barcelona post-season tests sets out the wider programme.

De Palo and Costa led before Rivera’s late move

James Egozi was the first driver reported at the top, with a 1:34.526. He later improved to 1:32.680, but Matteo De Palo moved ahead on 1:32.353 and then lowered the benchmark again to 1:31.867.

Miguel Costa briefly took the lead with a 1:31.829 before Rivera went faster. Colnaghi moved into second, 0.301 seconds behind Rivera, with Niccolò Maccagnani third at that point. Deligny subsequently displaced Colnaghi from second place.

Rivera heads a close top three

Rivera’s 1:31.677 stood as the morning’s fastest time. Deligny finished 0.188 seconds behind in second, while Colnaghi was third, 0.301 seconds off the lead. Their results gave Campos two cars in the top three, with Deligny splitting the team’s pair.

Alessandro Giusti finished fourth, followed by Alexander Abkhazava, Keanu Al Ahzari, Maciej Gladysz, Costa, Kanato Le and De Palo. The live-blog updates did not identify the tyre compound used for Rivera’s, Deligny’s or Colnaghi’s fastest laps, nor whether they came from qualifying-style runs or race-pace work. That leaves the order without important context: these were testing times, not a direct measure of underlying pace.

Tyre work and practice starts shaped the close

The morning began with the expectation that drivers would use early running for installation laps and systems checks before pushing for faster times. Campos prepared Medium tyres; the team’s allocation for the week was reported as four sets of Hards and two sets of Mediums.

Late in the session, MP Motorsport fitted new Hard tyres to all three of its cars, while AIX also sent its three cars out on new Hards. Most of the field was using older tyres during the final part of the morning, and some drivers practised starts at the end of the pitlane.

The updates noted the sun rising at dawn but gave no detailed weather report or track temperature. They reported no notable incidents and included no driver quotes. The afternoon session offered another chance to assess programmes, but without comparable tyre and run-plan information, the morning leaderboard could not settle how the teams stood against one another.