Nasr On Top In Final Rockingham Test

Young Brazilian Felipe Nasr and the Raikkonen Robertson team reasserted themselves as Cooper Tires British F3 frontrunners today (Friday) at Rockingham, topping the timesheets in two of the day's three test sessions ahead of the weekend's mid-season races.

Felipe Nasr at Rockingham. Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography/British F3

Seventeen-year-old Nasr shot to the top in the second of the day's three sessions and, though he could not manage in session three to better his earlier time, he was again the quickest. "I have had a good break from racing since the last meeting," said Felipe, "and the team has had a break also, a chance to look at what we needed to do. We've made some changes and, so far, they seem to be working."

His best time of the day was 0.036s quicker than that of his closest rival, Carlin's Malaysian driver Jazeman Jaafar, but was more than two seconds off the testing pace set at Rockingham when the F3 teams visited in March. Strong gusts across the speedway's main straight were thought to be the problem. "The wind was very bad," said Nasr, "every lap it felt different on the straight."

Nasr's Raikkonen Robertson team-mates Daisuke Nakajima and Carlos Huertas both made the top eight today. James Calado, who was quickest in the first of the day's sessions, ended his day third for Carlin, with championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne setting sixth-best time, behind Fortec's Daniel McKenzie. Less than a second covered the top 12.

Menasheh Idafar out-pointed his T-Sport team-mate James Cole in each of the three sessions to lead the National class.

Jay Bridger and the Litespeed F3 team with the newly liveried 'Lotus Junior' Dallara F3 car Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography/British F3

Round 13 is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at Rockingham, with the championship's first pit-stop race scheduled for Sunday morning and the third event of the Rockingham weekend, the 40-minute feature race, for Sunday afternoon. British F3 is sponsored by US tyre manufacturer Cooper Tire and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and Mirror.co.uk

Litespeed F3 unveiled its new 'Lotus Junior' livery at Rockingham, the team having taken the opportunity of the six-week break between the Hockenheim and Rockingham meetings to send its Mercedes-powered Dallara chassis along to the Lotus Racing factory for a repaint in the Grand Prix team's famous green and yellow livery. Team boss Nino Singh Judge said: "The new identity underlines the Litespeed F3 link with Lotus Racing as part of the team's driver development ladder."

Cooper Tires British F3 International Series
Official testing, Rockingham 16/7/2010

Leading International class times am / pm

1      Felipe NASR       BRA  RR       Dallara-Mercedes     1m 13.247s / 1m 13.434s
2      Jazeman JAAFAR    MAS  Carlin   Dallara-Volkswagen   1m 13.283s / 1m 13.871s
3      James CALADO      GBR  Carlin   Dallara-Volkswagen   1m 13.476s / 1m 13.572s
4      Daisuke NAKAJIMA  JPN  RR       Dallara-Mercedes     1m 13.488s / 1m 14.451s
5      Daniel McKENZIE   GBR  Fortec   Dallara-Mercedes     1m 13.490s / 1m 14.916s
6      Jean-Eric VERGNE  FRA  Carlin   Dallara-Volkswagen   1m 13.493s / 1m 13.857s
7      Gabriel DIAS      BRA  Hitech   Dallara-Volkswagen   1m 13.510s / 1m 14.198s
8      Carlos HUERTAS    COL  RR       Dallara-Mercedes     1m 13.512s / 1m 13.996s
9(INV) Pietro FANTIN     BRA  Hitech   Dallara-Mercedes     1m 13.528s / 1m 14.109s
10     Oli WEBB          GBR  Fortec   Dallara-Mercedes     1m 14.077s / 1m 13.762s etc

National class
1      Menasheh IDAFAR   GBR  T-Sport  Dallara-Mugen Honda  1m 14.065s / 1m 14.914s
2      James COLE        GBR  T-Sport  Dallara-Mugen Honda  1m 14.904s / 1m 15.340s

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