Snetterton Practice 1
Overcast conditions faced the drivers for the first of the four BRDC British Formula 3 Championships sessions of the day at Snetterton ahead of this weekend’s opening round of the season.
The 21-car field took to the track as soon as the session got underway, with Lanan Racing‘s Akhil Rabindra setting the early pace as times began to drop.
With 20 minutes remaining in the session, Tarun Reddy moved to the top of the timing sheets with a 1m46.431 taking him to the top of the field. Reddy was soon knocked off of the top spot by Toby Sowery at the halfway point of the session.
The Carlin duo of Lando Norris and Ricky Collard soon made their presence known with Norris moving to the top of the standings, only to be bettered by Collard as times continued to get quicker and quicker.
With six minutes remaining in the session, the order at the top would change once again as Norris improved to a 1m44.250s to retake the top spot, with Douglas Motorsport‘s Enaam Ahmed moving into second place behind him.
When the chequered flag came down the order stood with Norris still on top followed by Ahmed, Collard, Matheus Leist, Ben Hingeley, Sisa Ngebulana, Reddy, Al Faisal Al Zubair, Ameya Vaidynathan and Rabindra.
Practice 1 Results
[table id=873 /]
Snetterton Practice 2
Fortec Motorsport‘s Reddy ended the second practice fastest, in a session which was broken up by a number of stoppages.
The first ten minutes elapsed without much event, with Reddy leading the way early on but was soon challenged by South African Ngebulana who was the first man to drop into the 1m45s.
With times continuing to drop Toby Sowery found himself at the head of the timing screens on a 1m45.008s. Ruddy fought back though and once again went quickest. As it looked like other drivers were going to improve the session was brought to a halt due to a spin for HHC Motorsport‘s Omar Ismail, who despite the spin managed to bring his car back to the pits.
When the session resumed Collard and Norris both improved on their personal bests, with Collard moving up to sixth and Norris third but Reddy continued to lead the way, when, with just five minutes left on the clock, the red flag was brought out once again bring the session to an end, with the chequered flag flying not long after.
Reddy led the way followed closely being by: Sowery, Norris, Ngebulana, Al Zubair, Thomas Randle, Collard, Ahmed, Leist and Rabindra.
Practice 2 Results
[table id=875 /]
Snetterton Practice 3
Norris was once again the fastest at the end of the third session as he edged out Tarun Reddy and Ricky Collard. Having circulated the track for a number of laps, times began to fly in with Reddy sitting at the top for the time being.
Ahmed took over the top spot, before a red flag was brought out as a result of Ismail having an off at the Montreal Hairpin – with the session having been stopped for six minutes the session resumed with eleven minutes remaining on the clock.
Once the session had got going again, Collard jumped up into fourth fastest on a 1m46.836s and was rapidly improving with his very next lap which took him to the top spot.
With five minutes remaining of the session, Collard’s Carlin team-mate Norris moved to the head of the standings with a 1m45.214s with Ahmed also moving up to third ahead of Al Faisal Al Zubair and Sowery.
Reddy hit back however, to move back into second place whilst Norris improved on his time once again. Behind the pair came: Collard, Sowery, Leist, Ahmed, Al Zubair, Vaidyanathan, Ngebulana and Aleksanteri Huovinen.
Practice 3 Results
[table id=876 /]
Snetterton Practice 4
In the final session of the day it was Collard who came out on top, edging out his team-mate Norris and Randle.
Sowery led the way after the first ten minutes of the session, before being bested by Ngebulana who set a 1m45.582s. First and third session leader Norris soon leapt to the front with Collard in P2. Leist hopped up with to third, pushing Ngebulana to fourth.
Randle posted his best time with ten minutes left on the clock to go third fastest, at this stage only 0.057s behind Norris.
The red flag was out once again, bringing a halt to the sessions with six minutes left on the session. At the restart, Leist managed to improve on his time and leapfrogged up to third but could not improve any further. Leist was then bested by Randle at the chequered flag to claim third place.
At the end of the final session of the day, the top ten was made up of: Collard, Norris, Randle, Leist, Sowery, Reddy, Ngebulana, Huovinen, Ahmed and Quinlan Lall.
Practice 4 Results
[table id=878 /]
