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
