Volkswagen-driven machinery dominated the opening day of British Formula 3 testing at Silverstone yesterday.
Indeed Carlin also maintained their early position of power with F3 veteran Carlos Huertas setting the quickest time of the day. The Colombian secured his place at the top of the sheets during the first hour of running, with a lap of 1:52.564 several minutes before the break.
Fellow Carlin pilot Felipe Nasr lined-up just behind Huertas at the close of day, although the 18-year-old fell just one-hundredth shy his teammate.
If only to confirm their stranglehold, three fellow Carlin drivers filled out the top-five, with the sixth entry – Jack Harvey – taking 7th by the chequered flag. Ahead of Harvey, Jazeman Jaafar claimed 3rd spot, just 0.250 behind the Huertas / Nasr pairing, with Kevin Magnussen (4th) and Rupert Svendsen-Cook (5th) a quarter-of-a-second further back.
Hitech’s Pietro Fantin was again he only driver to break the Carlin party, eventually ending the session 6th. The inexperienced Brazilian has certainly been showing some solid pace in these recent tests and continued to impress at the wheel of his Dallara F310.
Riki Christodoulou guided the second Hitech entry to 8th spot with a best of 1:53.357, only just nudging the Double R racers, Pipo Derani (9th) and Scott Pye (10th). The Brazilian Derani also headed the list of Mercedes-powered drivers, beating more experienced hands to the top-ten.
Lucas Foresti secured 11th best, although the Fortec driver found himself over one second off of Huertas’ pace. Harry Tincknell (12th, Fortec) and Hywel Lloyd (13th, Sino Vision) followed close behind, with the gap extending further as William Buller (14th, Fortec), Menasheh Idafar (15th, T-Sport), Adderly Fong (16th, Sino Vision) and Yann Cunha (17th, T Sport) wrapped up their respective days.
Sole National Class pilot, Bart Hylkema rounded up the classification. The 21-year-old T Sport driver was the only to run a Mugen-Honda power plant in his Dallara F307, eventually finishing 2.8 seconds off the pace.
The test continues tomorrow.
Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap 1. Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW 1m52.564s 2. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW 1m52.574s + 0.010s 3. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 1m52.828s + 0.264s 4. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW 1m53.066s + 0.502s 5. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW 1m53.108s + 0.544s 6. Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW 1m53.174s + 0.610s 7. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW 1m53.305s + 0.741s 8. Riki Christodoulou Hitech Dallara-VW 1m53.357s + 0.793s 9. Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc 1m53.371s + 0.807s 10. Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc 1m53.528s + 0.964s 11. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m53.602s + 1.038s 12. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m53.661s + 1.097s 13. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc 1m53.701s + 1.137s 14. William Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m53.958s + 1.394s 15. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-Merc 1m54.353s + 1.789s 16. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc 1m54.674s + 2.110s 17. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-Merc 1m55.204s + 2.640s 18. Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-Mugen 1m55.440s + 2.876s
