Menasheh Idafar declared himself satisfied after the second and final day of the British Formula Three test at Rockingham. He now goes into the championship finale with a four point advantage over James Cole in the National Class.
Idafar had set the fastest time in the class on the first day of testing around the Northamptonshire track, but was beaten back, narrowly, to second fastest by Cole on the second day on track. After the missing the best phase on new tyres (thanks to an off-track excursion) the British-born Bahraini's lap of 1:13.984 just two tenths shy of his title rival before recording a 1:14.217 on used tyres in the afternoon session.
“I'd have liked to be the fastest National Class driver again today but we weren't able to get the most from the new tyres in the morning,” admitted Idafar. “The most important thing today was to understand the set-up for Brands Hatch and to get comfortable with that, I'm looking forward to the weekend now.”
In the first day of testing Idafar had emerged comfortably ahead of Cole, lapping the 1.94 mile circuit half a second faster than Cole and just 1.2 seconds off the ultimate pace at the top of the timesheets, set by the International class runners.
Only three races around Brands Hatch's Grand Prix circuit now lie between Idafar and the class championship (the main championship having been decided two rounds ago) at the end of a long debut season in Formula Three when he and Cole have fought all season, swapping the title lead back and fourth.
