Linus Lundqvist was the man to Kush beat around Spa-Francorchamps as the BRDC British F3 Championship prepared ahead of its final test before the opening round next weekend. The Swede ended Wednesday 0.610 seconds in front of the opposition, though no running took place on Thursday due to snow.
He has experience of the circuit, with the Spa round being Lundqvist’s only outing in the F3 car last season. During the weekend he picked up two top ten finishes, improving towards the final race. His best time this week came in the afternoon, beating the 2017 pole time with a 2min 16.189.
While Lundqvist had ended the day with over half a second advantage, to say he’d been unchallenged would be a lie. Having topped the Donington test day, Kush Maini was determined to prove this was not a one-off, going fastest in the morning, just ahead of Lundqvist.
Both Maini and Tristan Charpentier kept the Double R Racing driver honest in the afternoon, with Charpentier going second overall behind the Swede, after finishing fourth in the morning. Maini thus slipped to third in the order, but remains a strong title threat going into the season.
Best of the rest went to Tom Gamble. Despite not actually making an appearance during Wednesday morning, the Ginetta Junior champion moved to just over a second behind Lundqvist’s benchmark, collecting fourth ahead of Krishnaraaj Mahadik in the second Double R.
With neither Douglas Motorsport cars appearing at Donington, Jamie Chadwick proved she was still competitive, going sixth, 1.334 behind the leader. Meanwhile, the top eight was rounded out by Manuel Maldonado and Hillspeed‘s Josuf Owega.
The surprise of the day came from the defending champions, Carlin. While Nicolai Kjaergaard had been third at the end of the morning, all cars struggled to improve, with Kjaergaard falling to ninth overall ahead of Sun Yue Yang and Billy Monger. Two unsigned drivers were also present, with Asian Formula Renault race winner, Arvin Esmaeili in thirteenth, one ahead of Hillspeed’s long-time test driver Sasakorn Chaimongkol.
Snow called off proceedings on Thursday, though some of the Formula Renault 2.0 cars that were also present, made it out for installation laps.
“Today has been very good, a lot of mileage and we played around quite a bit with different set-ups, and found a good one that seemed to suit me.” said Lundqvist. “I think we really did hit the sweet spot when the track was at its best and I was able to put in a good lap. All in all, the car felt great and let’s see what tomorrow can bring.”
