British Formula 3 In-Season Test (Spa-Francorchamps, July 28th)

Spa-Francorchamps © Creative Commons / Will Pittenger

Kevin Magnussen continued his run of pace during practice for this weekend’s British Formula 3 meeting at Spa-Francorchamps.

Although lacking luck in recent rounds, the Dane has showcased speed on numerous occasions; however several mechanical problems and accidents have marred his results sheet.

The Carlin pilot finished atop of the timesheets yesterday, holding a seven-tenths advantage over teammate Felipe Nasr.
On what started out damp, dried throughout the morning running, with Magnussen’s best of 2:14.299 remaining the quickest lap of the entire day.

Several drivers from the Formula 3 Euroseries will also be taking this weekend as part of the FIA F3 International Trophy.
Indeed F3 Euroseries leader Robert Mehri proved to be the quickest of these, coming just seven-thousandths shy of Nasr in the final timings.

Mehri – along with Raffaele Marciello, Laurens Vanthoor, Carlos Munoz, Marco Wittmann, Hannes van Asseldonk and former British F3 champion Marco Asmer amongst others – will expand the field to twenty-nine cars at Spa.
British F3 regulars Jazeman Jaafar and Carlos Huertas are the sole drivers from the series that also run in the International Trophy.

A rain affected afternoon session slowed times dramatically. Roberto Mehri was quickest by some margin over fellow Invitational drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Hannes van Asseldonk.
Mehri’s quickest tour of 2:40.491 gave the Spaniard a one-and-a-half second advantage over Vanthoor, with van Asseldonk over three seconds adrift of the Spaniard.

Kevin Magnussen headed the British F3 contingent with a best of 2:43.925; however such were dreadful conditions around the famed circuit, the times can be viewed as largely irrelevant.

T-Sport’s Yann Cunha came close to the bottom of the time sheets, summing up both his week and his season thus far. The Brazilian was fined £1,000 and docked 40 points for breaking rules regarding Championship participation earlier this season.
According to Formula 3 regulations, “competitors and teams / entrants registered for the series are free to take part in other F3 race meetings, except at circuits (or part of one) that are listed on the 2011 series calendar.”
Cunha raced a European F3 Open event at Spa-Francorchamps earlier this year.

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
 1.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m14.299s
 2.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m14.942s  + 0.643s
 3.  Roberto Merhi         Prema           Dallara-Merc   2m14.949s  + 0.650s
 4.  Jack Harvey           Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m15.264s  + 0.965s
 5.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema           Dallara-Merc   2m15.438s  + 1.139s
 6.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m15.443s  + 1.144s
 7.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m15.517s  + 1.218s
 8.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m15.916s  + 1.617s
 9.  Laurens Vanthoor      Signature       Dallara-VW     2m15.924s  + 1.625s
10.  Carlos Munoz          Signature       Dallara-VW     2m15.938s  + 1.639s
11.  Marko Asmer           Double R        Dallara-Merc   2m15.938s  + 1.639s
12.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech          Dallara-VW     2m16.016s  + 1.717s
13.  Marco Wittmann        Signature       Dallara-VW     2m16.184s  + 1.885s
14.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Van Amersfoort  Dallara-VW     2m16.399s  + 2.100s
15.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport         Dallara-VW     2m16.431s  + 2.132s
16.  William Buller        Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m16.442s  + 2.143s
17.  Scott Pye             Double R        Dallara-Merc   2m16.776s  + 2.477s
18.  Daniel Abt            Signature       Dallara-VW     2m16.915s  + 2.616s
19.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m16.992s  + 2.693s
20.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc   2m17.103s  + 2.804s
21.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport         Dallara-VW     2m17.279s  + 2.980s
22.  Luis Derani           Double R        Dallara-Merc   2m17.339s  + 3.040s
23.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m17.595s  + 3.296s
24.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport         Dallara-VW     2m17.604s  + 3.305s
25.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc   2m17.946s  + 3.647s
26.  Fahmi Ilyas           Forr            Dallara-Merc   2m18.457s  + 4.158s
27.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema           Dallara-Merc   2m18.615s  + 4.316s
28.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech          Dallara-Mugen  2m19.358s  + 5.059s

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