Sainz quickest in Brands Hatch test

Carlos Sainz Jr went fastest by almost half a second as the British Formula 3 International Series prepared for this weekend’s Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit round with a pair of one-hour test sessions.

The Spaniard unleashed a corking lap with just three minutes of running remaining, as most of the field improved in a final 10-minute sprint after National Class racer Spike Goddard had caused a red flag by crashing on the GP loop and damaging a tyre wall.

Up until then, Sainz had been trading fastest times with Jack Harvey, his stablemate in the Carlin squad of Dallara-Volkswagens. The two were evenly matched in the first session, which Sainz edged by 0.2s, and were again nip and tuck later on before Sainz did his flier.

Harvey was also demoted by team-mate Harry Tincknell, who snuck into second place in the closing couple of minutes at the circuit where he won a reversed-grid race last year.

Carlin’s points leader Jazeman Jaafar was down in fifth, and was headed by Felix Serralles, who bounced back to form by beating Alex Lynn to be the fastest of the Fortec Motorsport quartet of Dallara-Mercedes.

As well as Goddard’s crash, there were red flags in the earlier session caused when Pietro Fantin and BF3 returnee Adderly Fong took trips into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel.

Fong, driving a Dallara run by the CF Racing team, leapfrogged Goddard in the closing minutes to top the National Class times.

 Pos  Driver                Team                           Time       
  1.  Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen      1m17.257s
  2.  Harry Tincknell       Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen      1m17.727s
  3.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen      1m17.881s
  4.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Mercedes        1m17.911s
  5.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen      1m18.002s
  6.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Mercedes        1m18.165s
  7.  Pietro Fantin         Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen      1m18.269s
  8.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes        1m18.615s
  9.  Fahmi Ilyas           Double R Dallara-Mercedes      1m19.050s
 10.  Pipo Derani           Fortec Dallara-Mercedes        1m19.150s
 11.  Geoff Uhrhane         Double R Dallara-Mercedes      1m19.473s
 12.  Nick McBride          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan         1m19.629s
 13.  Adderly Fong          CF Dallara-Mugen Honda         1m20.238s*
 14.  Spike Goddard         T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda    1m20.840s*
 15.  Duvashen Padayachee   Double R Dallara-Mugen Honda   1m22.711s*

* = National Class
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/sainz-quickest-in-brands-hatch-test

Travis Wade Kvapil Robert Allen Labonte Terrence Lee Labonte Randy Joseph Lajoie Kevin Paul Lepage