Carlin's Carlos Sainz Jr tops practice for British and European F3 Championship round at Spa
Carlos Sainz Jr showed that he could be getting his faltering Formula 3 campaign back on track by topping free practice for this weekend's combined British/FIA European round at Spa
The Spaniard's Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen headed the sister car of British F3 points leader Jack Harvey as drivers from the UK series took a top-seven wipeout of positions in the afternoon session.
Harvey bounced back from an injector problem that caused him to miss most of the morning half-hour - the Lincolnshire man only rejoined the track in the last few minutes to get a read on handling, but showed no ill-effects in the afternoon session.
"It was good," said Sainz. "But track conditions were really strange. With the second set of tyres we were more than half a second slower. Jack had exactly the same problem so we think it's the track. Also, I had some misfires on the straights so we'll need to take a look at that."
Rather bafflingly bearing in mind the Carlin situation, Alex Lynn did find time on his second set of tyres to go third fastest in his Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes; the Essex lad narrowly heading his Puerto Rican title-contending team-mate Felix Serralles.
Jazeman Jaafar, the other man right in the mix for British F3 title glory, was fifth in the afternoon after topping the morning session. He headed Hannes van Asseldonk and Nick McBride, the Australian making a major step forward in competitiveness to go seventh in T-Sport's Dallara-Nissan.
With Sainz also registered for the FIA European Championship, he was well clear of his rivals in that contest. In fact it was a sons-of-rally-legends one-two as Tom Blomqvist was second among those cars and eighth eighth overall in his Ma-Con Dallara-VW.
Prema Powerteam's drivers, including FIA points leader Raffaele Marciello and Euro Series top dog Daniel Juncadella, were all some way adrift of the pace, although the Spaniard sat out a chunk of the second session. The team reported baffling oversteer on its Dallara-Mercs.
Adderly Fong headed the National Class in his CF Racing Dallara, although he crashed just before the end of practice at the left-hander before Pouhon.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW 2m15.421s 2. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW 2m15.622s + 0.201s 3. Alex Lynn Fortec Dallara-Merc 2m15.689s + 0.268s 4. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 2m15.722s + 0.301s 5. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 2m15.887s + 0.465s 6. Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Dallara-Merc 2m16.092s + 0.571s 7. Nick McBride T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 2m16.422s + 1.001s 8. Tom Blomqvist Ma-con Dallara-VW 2m16.483s + 1.062s 9. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 2m16.608s + 1.187s 10. Emil Bernstorff Ma-con Dallara-VW 2m16.655s + 1.234s 11. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 2m16.700s + 1.279s 12. Pietro Fantin Carlin Dallara-VW 2m16.736s + 1.315s 13. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 2m16.766s + 1.345s 14. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Merc 2m17.007s + 1.586s 15. Fahmi Ilyas Double R Dallara-Merc 2m17.061s + 1.640s 16. Geoff Uhrhane Double R Dallara-Merc 2m17.135s + 1.714s 17. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 2m17.180s + 1.759s 18. Raffaelle Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 2m17.266s + 1.845s 19. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 2m17.285s + 1.864s 20. Richard Bradley Carlin Dallara-VW 2m17.301s + 1.880s 21. Michael Lewis Prema Dallara-Merc 2m17.309s + 1.888s 22. Sven Muller Prema Dallara-Merc 2m17.333s + 1.912s 23. Andrea Roda Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc 2m17.820s + 2.399s 24. Adderly Fong CF Dallara-Mugen 2m18.102s + 2.701s 25. Luis Sa Silva Angola Dallara-Merc 2m18.568s + 3.147s 26. Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc 2m19.051s + 3.630s 27. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen 2m19.233s + 3.802s 28. Duvashen Padayachee Double R Dallara-Mugen 2m19.522s + 4.101s 29. Pedro Calbimonte T-Sport Dallara-Mugen 2m19.869s + 4.418s
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