Jack Harvey topped the first of a two-day British Formula 3 test session at Rockingham yesterday.
Fronting an all-Carlin top-five, the 18-year-old laid down his marker – 1:17.022 – during a relatively lengthy stint toward the end of the day, giving Harvey a three-tenths gap over the following group.
Harvey set three separate times that would have given him the top spot, as he completed an impressive 72 laps throughout the day, further bedding himself in with the new Dallara F312.
“It was a very productive day. The car felt good all day, we made a few tweaks, put some new tyres on towards the end and it all came together. However, we will have to keep working hard tomorrow to try to create an even bigger gap.”
Ending the day was a rather close-knit pack headed by Harry Tincknell. The ex-Fortec racer enjoyed his quickest run at the very tail end of the day, pipping Carlos Sainz Jr (3rd) and Jazeman Jaafar (4th) by three-hundredths.
Jaafar’s quickest – a 1:17.347 – helped him to top at lunchtime; however the Malaysian got to within hundredths of repeating this feat during the afternoon running. Pietro Fantin claimed the 5th as the day drew to a close.
It was the continuation of a productive week for Sainz Jr, who tested a GP3 car at Barcelona for Lotus on Monday.
From there, gaps grew with leading Fortec runner, Alex Lynn 6th, half-a-second shy of the top spot. A further half-a-second split Lynn and teammate Felix Serralles in 7th, while Hannes van Asseldonk (8th) and Pipo Derani (9th) brought up the Fortec rear.
T-Sport’s Nick McBride finally got his hands on a Nissan-powered Dallara F312 today. McBride completed a shakedown run, as well as a series of short stints, falling just shy of Derani in the time sheets, but well ahead of the Rookie Class pairing Spike Goddard (T-Sport, 11th) and Duvashen Padayachee (Double R, 12th).
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps 1. Jack Harvey Carlin-VW 1m17.022s 72 2. Harry Tincknell Carlin-VW 1m17.319s +0.297s 69 3. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin-VW 1m17.322s +0.300s 64 4. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin-VW 1m17.347s +0.325s 44 5. Pietro Fantin Carlin-VW 1m17.423s +0.401s 72 6. Alex Lynn Fortec-Merc 1m17.559s +0.537s 63 7. Felix Serralles Fortec-Merc 1m18.122s +1.100s 59 8. Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec-Merc 1m18.251s +1.229s 54 9. Pipo Derani Fortec-Merc 1m18.341s +1.319s 65 10. Nick McBride T-Sport-Nissan 1m18.560s +1.538s 68 11. Spike Goddard T-Sport-Mugen* 1m20.084s +3.062s 73 12. Duvashen Padayachee Double R-Mugen* 1m21.507s +4.485s 86 *= National Class
