European F3 test: Will Buller puts T-Sport and Nissan on top
Will Buller showed why he is regarded as a dark horse for this year's Formula 3 European Championship by setting the fastest time of the two-day official test at Barcelona
Buller headed an all-UK 1-2-3 with his ThreeBond Nissan-powered Dallara, as F3 newboy Jordan King and Harry Tincknell chased close behind in their Carlin Dallara-Volkswagens.
For T-Sport, the result backed up the promise shown on a one-off European championship outing at the Nurburgring last year with Alexander Sims.
Team boss Russell Eacott said: "We felt we had a reasonably competitive package from last year, but I was a bit surprised with this.
"Will's done really well and hasn't put a foot wrong. It was a good, solid effort. And for me what was even more impressive was the [slower] afternoon session, when he didn't use new tyres but still ended up P4."
Sven Muller did a good job with the Ma-con team's lead Dallara-VW to go fourth, while Tom Blomqvist was fastest in the afternoon session in his EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes, making it four UK drivers in Saturday's overall top five.
Nicholas Latifi, a graduate of Italian F3, made it three Carlin drivers in the top six.
Prema Powerteam, whose drivers dominated on Friday, chose not to go for any headline-grabbing lap times, with Raffaele Marciello (eighth, behind Dennis van de Laar) the team's only man in the top 10.
Once again Double R Racing's inexperienced Italian Antonio Giovinazzi made it into the top 10, but a big shunt - from which he emerged unscathed - ruled him out of the afternoon session. Fortec Motorsport's Pipo Derani, who rounded out the top 10, also sat out the afternoon as he had completed his programme.
There was one change of driver from Friday, with American Michael Lewis replacing Riccardo Agostini at the Romeo Ferraris team. Lewis is expected to race the car in the opening round at Monza.
Combined test times: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Will Buller T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m40.812s 2. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW 1m40.997s + 0.185s 3. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 1m41.021s + 0.209s 4. Sven Muller Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m41.159s + 0.347s 5. Tom Blomqvist EuroIntern'l Dallara-Merc 1m41.191s + 0.379s 6. Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW 1m41.195s + 0.383s 7. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m41.208s + 0.396s 8. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.308s + 0.496s 9. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc 1m41.374s + 0.562s 10. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m41.379s + 0.567s 11. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m41.389s + 0.577s 12. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW 1m41.401s + 0.589s 13. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.433s + 0.621s 14. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.441s + 0.629s 15. Mans Grenhagen Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m41.466s + 0.654s 16. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m41.508s + 0.696s 17. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc 1m41.771s + 0.959s 18. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m41.812s + 1.000s 19. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m41.882s + 1.070s 20. Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc 1m41.893s + 1.081s 21. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc 1m41.946s + 1.134s 22. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m41.976s + 1.164s 23. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m41.984s + 1.172s 24. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m41.999s + 1.187s 25. Josh Hill Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m42.416s + 1.604s 26. Dmitry Suranovich Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m42.813s + 2.001s 27. Michael Lewis Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m42.997s + 2.185s 28. Michela Cerruti Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m43.693s + 2.881s
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