Carlin’s South American drivers, Felipe Nasr and Carlos Huertas have both shown impeccable form on the first day of testing at Silverstone. The second official test for the upcoming British Formula 3 Championship resumed this morning (Tuesday), and was coupled with an annual media day and British GT testing.
Brazilian Nasr was quickest overall in the previous test at Rockingham last week, but this time was robbed of the fastest time by a mere 1/100th of a second by Colombian Huertas. Whilst both were separated by the smallest of margins, the pair were 3 tenths clear of the chasing pack, underlining their dominant display over the morning’s activity.
Carlin were heavily-present at the head of the field as the top 5 times were all set in the team’s Dallara-Volkswagen cars. Jazeman Jaafar set the third fastest time, followed closely by Kevin Magnussen and Rupert Svendsen-Cook respectively. HiTech’s Pietro Fantin occupied sixth place, two places ahead of team-mate Riki Christodoulou. The only Mercedes-powered cars in the top 10 took the last two spots in the form of Pipo Derani and Formula Ford champion Scott Pye, both representing Double R Racing.
Testing will resume tomorrow (Wednesday), where the rest of the field will surely try to rein in the superlative South Americans.
Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series
Official testing, Silverstone / 8 March
Leading runners:
1 Carlos HUERTAS / COL, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 52.564s
2 Felipe NASR / BRA, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 52.574s
3 Jazeman JAAFAR / MAS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 52.828s
4 Kevin MAGNUSSEN / DEN, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 53.066s
5 Rupert SVENDSEN-COOK / GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 53.108s
6 Pietro FANTIN / BRA, Hitech Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 53.174s
7 Jack HARVEY / GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 53.305s
8 Riki CHRISTODOULOU / GBR, Hitech Dallara-Volkswagen 1m 53.357s
9 Pipo DERANI / BRA, Double R Dallara-Mercedes 1m 53.371s
10 Scott PYE / AUS, Double R Dallara-Mercedes 1m 53.528s etc
Full timings can be found here: http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BF3GT&event=testing&source=bf3gt2006&eventid=111015
