Carlin ready for 2010 Masters

Jean-Eric Vergne will lead the Carlin team on the grid for the RTL GP Masters of F3, following a busy day of track action in the Netherlands today. The Red Bull Junior was the quickest Carlin driver at Zandvoort this afternoon and will line up eighth for the race tomorrow. Jazeman Jaafar put in a competitive performance considering his relative age and experience and qualified 13th, with Rupert Svendsen-Cook 16th and Lucas Foresti 19th.

Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA) Carlin Dallara Volkswagen Credit: British F3

Following two practice sessions this morning to familiarise themselves with the Kumho tyres, the Carlin drivers took part in the first of two qualifying sessions earlier this afternoon. Svendsen-Cook looked to be on pace; the Oulton Park race winner was among the top three half way through the session. With only eight minutes to go, Vergne held provisional pole while Svendsen-Cook was seventh, but as the session entered its final stages the times started to tumble. With the first qualifying session completed, Vergne had provisionally qualified sixth, with Jaafar 12th, Svendsen-Cook 16th and Foresti 19th.

With the grid for tomorrow's 25 lap race set by the drivers' fastest time from either the first or second qualifying session, the drivers still had 30 minutes of qualifying to improve their grid slots further.

As second qualifying got underway late this afternoon, it seemed that conditions had deteriorated and that this morning's qualifying would be the deciding session. However, with just ten minutes to go and almost the whole field on track on new rubber, the times suddenly started to tumble, with 60 minutes of qualifying coming down to the last few flying laps. Vergne struggled with traffic but managed to go eighth, with Jaafar 13th, Svendsen-Cook 15th and Foresti 18th. With almost all the drivers improving their times, a red flag with four and half minutes remaining suddenly halted proceedings. Once the on-track incident had been cleared, the entire field again took to the track, with a maximum of two flying laps possible in the time remaining. With so much traffic, few drivers managed to improve their time, and the Carlin quartet kept their places on the timing screens.

With this afternoon's qualifying providing the quickest times, most drivers will line up on the grid where they finished in the second session, with only a few exceptions. Consequently, Vergne will line up eighth, Jaafar 13th, Svendsen-Cook 16th and Foresti 18th.

Reflecting on his first Masters qualifying session, Vergne said, "I had a lot of traffic on two of my fastest laps which I'm sure could have put me two tenths quicker, but I think a lot of the drivers would probably say the same. It is very competitive here and missing out on one good lap can make a big difference to your grid position. We still have a lot of work to do today; this tyre is very different to the tyre we are use to British F3. Tomorrow is a new day though and we have a very long race ahead of us with plenty of opportunity to move forwards."

The RTL GP Masters of Formula 3 will take place at 14.00 tomorrow local time.

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