A troubled end to the second round at Rockingham clearly hasn’t affected BRDC British F3 Championship leader Enaam Ahmed, with the Carlin driver setting the benchmark in the fourth and final session of the day.
Ahmed, who won the BRDC F3 Autumn Trophy during the one-off Snetterton round last year will be relishing a return to the Norfolk countryside as he looks to extend his points advantage, that sits at 15 points over teammate Cameron Das.
With a time of 1min 44.058 seconds he snatched the top spot off of James Pull in the dying minutes, who had set the pace in session one and two. Pull though was the most consistent, finishing inside the top three for all of the sessions, while Ahmed did fall as low as eighth in the third encounter.
The third test had seen Das on top, beating Pull’s pace from the morning, with a 1min 44.378. All three Carlin’s will once again be in contention for wins, though practice has proven that it may not just be Ahmed who races away at the front.
Times were quickest in the late afternoon sun, with all but two of the drivers setting their personal best during the final session. In the overall standings, this left Ahmed on top, while Pull and Toby Sowery both set identical personal bests, once again proving the raw pace of the Lanan Racing driver.
Das would be fourth quickest overall from F3’s newest race winner, Ben Hingeley. The Fortec Motorsport driver had come to forray during Rockingham and remained locked within the top six all day, proving himself a threat to the Carlin walkover.
Six overall would be Chase Owen, the American hoping to continue his strong set of results. Behind him would be Guilherme Samaia and Jordan Cane, who has decided to leave Owen at Hillspeed by Cliff Dempsey Racing team before his debut this weekend. Instead, Cane will race alongside ninth placed Callan O’Keeffe at Douglas Motorsport.
Cane was also one of the drivers not to set his best at the end of the day, having finished second in the third practice session. The top ten was rounded out by Nicolai Kjaergaard, who will need a strong result after his double retirement last time out.
