Rupert Svendsen-Cook tops first practice session for Formula 3 Masters at Zandvoort

In mixed weather conditions, the British Carlin driver posted a late flier in 1m46.704s to beat Motopark man Kimya Sato by 0.588s.

Sato edged out Mucke driver Nigel Melker and Signature's Marco Wittmann; all three of them having won when the F3 Euro Series visited the Dutch venue earlier this year.

Rain started as the 20-minute session got underway, although many drivers opted to remain on slicks throughout. Svendsen-Cook, along with fifth-placed Carlos Huertas, found that a change to wet tyres as the session progressed worked favourably.

"Certainly for me in those conditions, wets were faster," said Svendsen-Cook. "I don't want to read too much into it, but my car felt really good in those conditions. I started on slicks and then went to wets. I know quite a few guys had wets, I was the first car on wets and then the next fastest guy on wets was fifth. However, second, third and fourth were on slicks so maybe the jury is still out."

Regular Euro Series tyre supplier Kumho has specially made 800 ECSTA F3 dry and wet tyres for this meeting. Each driver is allocated three sets of wet and dry tyres for use in the two practice and qualifying sessions and Sunday's standalone race.

"We're sorted in that at least we have those scrubbed wets if there are similar conditions, so I think that's an advantage, if nothing more," added Svendsen-Cook.

"I think the wet tyres feel totally different [to the British series' Coopers], and the slick also," he continued. "I think we have a quick car, it's just how quickly you can adjust to the tyre."

Others to lead the session included Melker, Prema driver Daniel Juncadella and Wittmann. FIA Formula 3 Trophy leader Roberto Merhi was 12th. The Spaniard needs to score just one point this weekend to sea the inaugural championship, with just Macau remaining afterwards.

Pos  Driver                Team           Car            Time       Gap
 1.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin       Dallara-VW    1m46.074s
 2.  Kimiya Sato           Motopark     Dallara-VW    1m46.662s  + 0.588s
 3.  Nigel Melker          Mucke        Dallara-Merc  1m46.724s  + 0.650s
 4.  Marco Wittmann        Signature    Dallara-VW    1m47.069s  + 0.995s
 5.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin       Dallara-VW    1m47.085s  + 1.011s
 6.  Daniel Abt            Signature    Dallara-VW    1m47.190s  + 1.116s
 7.  Lucas Foresti         Mucke        Dallara-Merc  1m48.462s  + 2.388s
 8.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin       Dallara-VW    1m48.786s  + 2.712s
 9.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema        Dallara-Merc  1m48.806s  + 2.732s
10.  Felix Rosenqvist      Mucke        Dallara-Merc  1m49.390s  + 3.316s
11.  Pipo Derani           Prema        Dallara-Merc  1m50.113s  + 4.039s
12.  Roberto Merhi         Prema        Dallara-Merc  1m51.197s  + 5.113s
13.  Laurens Vanthoor      Signature    Dallara-VW    1m52.444s  + 6.370s
14.  Carlos Munoz          Signature    Dallara-VW    1m54.035s  + 7.961s
15.  Jimmy Eriksson        Motopark     Dallara-VW    1m55.659s  + 9.585s
16.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin       Dallara-VW    2m24.949s  + 38.875s