
Felipe Nasr claimed both pole position for tomorrows British Formula 3 feature at Donington Park and the 2011 Sunoco Rolex 24 Prize.
Nasr’s lap of 1:23.012 was enough to give the Brazilian a 0.064s advantage over Carlin teammate Jack Harvey.
Earning the Sunoco Prize means Nasr has an automatic entry to next January’s Daytona 24 Hour Race – a key endurance race that opens the motor racing season.
Behind Nasr and Harvey headed another trio of Carlin pilots – Rupert Svendsen-Cook, Carlos Huertas and Kevin Magnussen made it an all Carlin top-five, with Pipo Derani taking a solid 6th in his Double R machine.
Newly crowned GP3 Champion Valtteri Bottas assumed 7th some four-tenths shy of Nasr. Jazeman Jaafar assumed the 8th starting position beside the Finn, with Fortec man William Buller shadowing the fourth row men. Scott Pye rounded out the top ten with a time identical to that of Buller.
Svendsen-Cook took pole for race one later today with a lap of 1:23.261. The Monza race winner edged Harvey to the top spot, with Magnussen and Huertas making an all-Carlin top four.
Pye broke the Carlin qualifying domination ahead of Nasr (6th) and Bottas (7th).
Qualifying was peppered with several offs, including off-track excursions for Menasheh Idafar, Fahmi Ilyas and Adderly Fong.
The session came to a halt with less than three minutes remaining, following a crash involving Kotaro Sakurai. The Rookie Class racer lost his Hitech machine at the Old Hairpin hitting the tyre barriers hard, forcing out the red flag.
2011 British F3 Rnd of Donington (Rd 9, Qualifying, Race 1) 1. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.261 2. Jack Harvey Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.357 3. Kevin Magnussen Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.417 4. Carlos Huertas Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.479 5. Scott Pye Double R-Mercedes 1:23.493 6. Felipe Nasr Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.495 7. Valtteri Bottas Double R-Mercedes 1:23.500 8. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.514 9. Pipo Derani Double R-Mercedes 1:23.547 10. William Buller Fortec-Mercedes 1:23.577 11. Pietro Fantin Hitech-Volkswagen 1:23.607 12. Lucas Foresti Fortec-Mercedes 1:23.811 13. Max Snegirev Hitech-Volkswagen 1:24.267 14. Harry Tincknell Fortec-Mercedes 1:24.468 15. Yann Cunha T-Sport-Volkswagen 1:24.494 16. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport-Volkswagen 1:24.516 17. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision-Mercedes 1:24.587 18. Bart Hylkema T-Sport-Volkswagen 1:24.588 19. Adderly Fong Sino Vision-Mercedes 1:25.033 20. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec-Mercedes 1:25.652 21. Kotaro Sakurai Hitech-Mugen Honda 1:26.102 2011 British F3 Rnd of Donington (Rd 9, Qualifying, Race 3) 6. Felipe Nasr Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.012 2. Jack Harvey Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.076 1. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.228 4. Carlos Huertas Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.323 3. Kevin Magnussen Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.348 9. Pipo Derani Double R-Mercedes 1:23.395 7. Valtteri Bottas Double R-Mercedes 1:23.448 8. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin-Volkswagen 1:23.462 10. William Buller Fortec-Mercedes 1:23.479 5. Scott Pye Double R-Mercedes 1:23.479 11. Pietro Fantin Hitech-Volkswagen 1:23.560 12. Lucas Foresti Fortec-Mercedes 1:23.804 13. Max Snegirev Hitech-Volkswagen 1:24.169 16. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport-Volkswagen 1:24.276 15. Yann Cunha T-Sport-Volkswagen 1:24.343 14. Harry Tincknell Fortec-Mercedes 1:24.355 18. Bart Hylkema T-Sport-Volkswagen 1:24.427 17. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision-Mercedes 1:24.473 19. Adderly Fong Sino Vision-Mercedes 1:24.597 20. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec-Mercedes 1:25.213 21. Kotaro Sakurai Hitech-Mugen Honda 1:25.910
Interesting. Somebody gets to use the Sunoco Rolex 24 prize that I’ll actually have heard of. Of course, I’ve heard of him from reading your F3 updates all season, Leigh, but I think that’s a damn sight better than some guy in a Radical championship or some other lowly series showing up for one go at Daytona, who I’ll then never hear of again. Nasr appears to have a good, long career ahead, judging by his domination this year, so it’ll be nice to see a good, young guy get an extra high-profile race before moving on up the ladder.
Oh, as always, thanks for your excellent coverage, Leigh.
No problem mate. It’s been an absolute pleasure to cover Formula 3 this year and am hoping to be back doing it (and other things) in 2012.
As for Nasr, he’s a good chap, bright and quite focussed. He will have tougher hurdles ahead of him admittedly, but few challenges in motor racing are as tough as the Daytona 24 Hours. I’ve been been impressed by his immersion in the series – no one dominates without digging deep and that is exactly what he did.
It’s looking like he may be in World Series by Renault next year – probably one of the fiercest feeder formulae on the planet – and I’ll be watching his progress closely, as will many others.