Exeter-born Harry Tincknell rose to the top of the standings on day two of British Formula 3 testing at Rockingham.
The Carlin runner set a best of 1:16.810 in the morning session; coming to within thousandths of repeating the time during an afternoon session that he also fronted.
In what proved to be a busy day all round for the twelve drivers in attendance (every driver registered at least 60 laps), Tincknell logged an impressive 74 tours.
Although it is tempting to read too much into testing times, the 20-year-old may still garner a bolster of confidence from yesterday’s running.
Indeed, the Carlin quintet once again proved their worth, with all five of the Farnham team’s cars residing in the top positions.
After turning the quickest time on Tuesday, Jack Harvey claimed 2nd, only half-a-tenth shy of repeating prior glories. Carlos Sainz Jr (3rd) and Jazeman Jaafar (4th) also proved their worth, as they settled to within one-tenth of Tincknell’s best.
Set-up issues saw Carlin new boy Pietro Fantin become the first driver down in the ‘1:17s’ bracket, although the Brazilian remained some distance up on the chasing group.
Once again, it was Fortec’s Alex Lynn who came closest to the Volkswagen-powered Carlin machines in 7th spot.
Lynn, who completed 68 laps in his F312 chassis yesterday, ended the running in something of a timesheet limbo. Still playing the catch-up game with Carlin, the Fortec racer came to within three-tenths of Fantin, while still holding a similar gap to his Fortec teammates.
The other Fortec pilots – Hannes van Asseldonk (8th), Felix Serralles (9th) and Pipo Derani (10th) all enjoyed busy days, as they continue to bed themselves into their new regulation machines.
T-Sport’s Nick McBride split the Fortec foursome with a lap time good enough for 7th, as his Nissan-powered machine garners more chatter about its impressive straight-line speed. Enjoying only his second day in his Dallara F312, the former-Formula Ford ace collected 76, setting a quickest run of 1:17.727 in the afternoon.
McBride’s Rookie Class teammate, Spike Goddard, was fastest of the two second tier entries, as the Australian garnered a 1.062 second advantage over sole rival tester Duvashen Padayachee (Double R).
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps 1. Harry Tincknell Carlin-VW 1m16.810s 74 2. Jack Harvey Carlin-VW 1m16.856s +0.046s 71 3. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin-VW 1m16.904s +0.094s 63 4. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin-VW 1m16.918s +0.108s 76 5. Pietro Fantin Carlin-VW 1m17.368s +0.558s 66 6. Alex Lynn Fortec-Merc 1m17.613s +0.803s 68 7. Nick McBride T-Sport-Nissan 1m17.727s +0.917s 76 8. Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec-Merc 1m17.915s +1.105s 67 9. Felix Serralles Fortec-Merc 1m18.107s +1.297s 65 10. Pipo Derani Fortec-Merc 1m18.442s +1.632s 60 11. Spike Goddard T-Sport-Mugen* 1m19.361s +2.551s 64 12. Duvashen Padayachee Double R-Mugen* 1m20.423s +3.613s 75 *= National Class
