British Formula 3 Pre-Season Testing (Silverstone, March 9th)

Silverstone Circuit.

Jazeman Jaafar topped the second and final day of pre-season testing for the British Formula 3 series yesterday at Silverstone.

Like many of the field, the Carlin driver set his quickest time in the final afternoon session (1:52.920) following a cool and damp start to the day.
While Jaafar showed the way at the chequered flag, Fortec Motorsport’s Lucas Foresti displayed his natural skill in the difficult conditions prior to the grey lunch break, as did Carlos Huertas (Carlin) and the highly rated débutante, Scott Pye (Double R Racing).

By the close of action, it was Felipe Nasr that lined up on the timesheets just over one-tenth shy of Jaafar. The Brazilian has shown some exceptional speed during the four days of testing this year and is marking himself as one of the main championship favourites at this early stage.
Formula BMW Europe runner-up Jack Harvey completed a Carlin 1-2-3, with Double R Racing’s Pipo Derani breaking up the Carlin monopoly. Pye and Huertas eventually took 5th and 6th respectively – the pair continued their wet track form with solid dry running later on.
They edged Carlin’s Kevin Magnussen out of the top-six, although the Dane may well be pleased with his first tests in a Formula 3 machine.

Menasheh Idafar was one of the few that was quicker in the opening afternoon session. Despite not improving late on, the reigning National Champion had just nudged ahead of Pietro Fantin (9th, Hitech) and Rupert Svendsen-Cook (10th, Carlin).
Sino Vision’s Hywel Lloyd missed out on the top ten by a mere 0.024 of-a-second; however the Welshman finished the day with a healthy 0.4 of-a-second gap to Foresti (12th) and Riki Christodoulou (13th).
Harry Tincknell’s best lap of 1:54.232 saw the Devon man slot in at 14th on the sheets ahead of Fortec teammate William Buller, while Yann Cunha (T-Sport) emerged 16th (1:54.747), ahead of Sino Vision racer, Adderly Fong (1:55.064).

The final two places were taken up by Rookie Class runners Bart Hylkema (18th) and Kotaru Sakurai (19th). Although Hylkema has spent much of the last two tests garnering laps, yesterday was Sakurai’s first run of the Mugen-Honda powered Dallara.
Sakurai never made an appearance during the damp morning conditions, eventually only taking to the track in the afternoon, setting a best lap of 1:58.092 from only 21 laps.

Pos  Driver                Team         Car            Time       Gap
 1.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin       Dallara-VW     1m52.920s
 2.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin       Dallara-VW     1m53.059s  + 0.139s
 3.  Jack Harvey           Carlin       Dallara-VW     1m53.207s  + 0.287s
 4.  Pipo Derani           Double R     Dallara-Merc   1m53.267s  + 0.347s
 5.  Scott Pye             Double R     Dallara-Merc   1m53.306s  + 0.386s
 6.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin       Dallara-VW     1m53.344s  + 0.424s
 7.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin       Dallara-VW     1m53.396s  + 0.476s
 8.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport      Dallara-VW     1m53.415s  + 0.495s
 9.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech       Dallara-VW     1m53.469s  + 0.549s
10.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin       Dallara-VW     1m53.479s  + 0.559s
11.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision  Dallara-Merc   1m53.503s  + 0.583s
12.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec       Dallara-Merc   1m53.899s  + 0.979s
13.  Riki Christodoulou    Hitech       Dallara-VW     1m53.914s  + 0.994s
14.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec       Dallara-Merc   1m54.232s  + 1.312s
15.  William Buller        Fortec       Dallara-Merc   1m54.514s  + 1.594s
16.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport      Dallara-VW     1m54.747s  + 1.827s
17.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision  Dallara-Merc   1m55.064s  + 2.144s
18.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport      Dallara-Mugen  1m55.402s  + 2.482s
19.  Kotaru Sakurai        Hitech       Dallara-Mugen  1m58.092s  + 5.172s

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