Fortec Motorsport's Oli Webb topped the timesheets at Silverstone on Wednesday in the final pre-season test ahead of the British Formula Three season opener at Oulton Park on April 3-5.
The 19-year-old, in his first year in F3 after stepping up from Formula Renault has been consistent in each of the four tests, headed the three hour test session with a lap of 1:40.395 in his Dallara/Mercedes machine.
The session saw conditions start on a track wet enough for the entire field to take to the full GP layout on wet tyres, but steadily drying out during the session, the lap times plummeting by nearly ten seconds in the final hour.
Webb was only just faster than the first of the six Carlin cars in the hands of Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne – the latest man to climb into the Red Bull backed car (1:40.418) and his teammate Rupert Svendson-Cook and Hitech Racing's William Buller. A third Carlin car, this time of James Calado completed the top five with a lap of 1:41.121.
Webb's Fortec teammate, Daniel McKenzie was eighth fastest.
In the national class Menasheh Idafar was the faster of the two cars present at the Northamptonshire track, despite the British driver making a few visits to the gravel traps, bringing out the red flag. His fastest time of 1:42.004 was twelfth fastest overall, 1.5 seconds than T-Sport teammate James Cole, also in a Dallara/Mugen-Honda.
The performance wrapped up a perfect sweep of the seven pre-season tests.
“I'm really pleased with the outcome today, the track conditions were tricky early on but I was still able to be around the top 10 overall”, said 18-year-old Idafar, “We've had a really good pre-season and everything has gone as well as I could have hoped. I can't wait for the championship to start now!”
