British Formula 3 Pre-season Testing (Rockingham, March 2nd)

Rockingham Motor Speedway

Felipe Nasr claimed the spoils at the end yesterday’s second day of British Formula 3 testing at Rockingham Motor Speedway.

The Carlin driver set a quickest lap of 1:10.586 – some four-tenths quicker than his best lap from Tuesday – as the scrubbed track wilfully gave up more and more time to the eighteen car field.
Nasr completed 82 laps throughout the day, setting his quickest tour just prior to the lunch break. The Brazilian was closely followed by three of his team mates – Kevin Magnussen (2nd, 71 laps), Carlos Huertas (3rd, 72 laps) and Rupert Svendsen-Cook (4th, 84 laps). Indeed a tantalising Championship battle is already forming as the Carlin group run close together at this early stage.

However Hitech’s latest charger, Pietro Fantin has thus far being running Nasr and his cohorts rather closely. The Brazilian edged out Jazeman Jaafar to 5th with a best of 1:10.954, with the Malaysian Jaafar pipping the next Hitech runner, Riki Christodoulou to the top-six.  Formula BMW Europe Series runner-up Jack Harvey, completed a top-eight lock out for Volkswagen, although the graduate was the first driver not to break the 1:11 barrier.
Just behind Harvey, Formula 3 débutante Harry Tincknell ran to a respectable 9th in the standings, outpacing experienced British F3 hands, such as William Buller (10th, 67 laps), reigning National Champion Menasheh Idafar (11th, 78 laps), Lucas Foresti (12th, 92 laps) and Hywel Lloyd (13th, 78 laps).

Last year’s British Formula Ford Champion, Scott Pye finished the second day 14th on the time sheets, albeit 1.29 seconds down on Nasr; however the 21-year-old Australian had just enough pace to run quicker than China’s Adderly Fong (15th).  This year’s sole National Championship competitor, Bart Hylkema, took 16th ahead of T Sport’s Yann Cunha and Double R Racing’s Pipo Derani.

The run up to the 2011 British Formula 3 Championship steps up a gear next week as the field pushes onto Silverstone for two days of testing.

Pos  Driver               Team        Time
 1  Felipe NASR,          Carlin      1m 10.586s
 2  Kevin MAGNUSSEN,      Carlin      1m 10.732s
 3  Carlos HUERTAS,       Carlin      1m 10.792s
 4  Rupert SVENDSEN-COOK, Carlin      1m 10.838s
 5  Pietro FANTIN,        Hitech      1m 10.925s
 6  Jazeman JAAFAR,       Carlin      1m 10.954s
 7  Riki CHRISTODOULOU,   Hitech      1m 10.984s
 8  Jack HARVEY,          Carlin      1m 11.261s
 9  Harry TINCKNELL,      Fortec      1m 11.507s
10  William BULLER,       Fortec      1m 11.554s
11  Menasheh IDAFAR       T-Sport     1m 11.577
12  Lucas FORESTI         Fortec      1m 11.632
13  Hywel LLOYD           Sino Vision 1m 11.783
14  Scott PYE             Double R    1m 11.876
15  Adderly FONG          Sino Vision 1m 12.188
16  Bart HYLKEMA          T-Sport     1m 12.201
17  Yann CUNHA            T-Sport     1m 12.402
18  Pipo DERANI           Double R    1m 12.412

Leave a Reply