Alex Lynn goes fastest in Rockingham F3 test

Lynn headed Fortec Motorsport team-mate Hannes van Asseldonk as they outpaced the field by half a second. The Fortec squad hit the ground running after getting in a 'joker day' of testing with its quartet of Dallara-Mercedes at the Northamptonshire circuit on Monday.

As conditions warmed up times fell away rapidly, although Lynn was still able to go fastest in the final session of the day, edging out fellow Briton Harry Tincknell by 0.043 seconds.

Tincknell was pipped as the fastest Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen runner by Jazeman Jaafar, who was quickest in the second session in the morning. The Malaysian caused the final red flag of the day when he stopped on the circuit after bending a trackrod on a kerb.

Fortec's Pipo Derani was fifth ahead of championship leader Carlos Sainz Jr. Carlin-run Sainz was quickest in the day's third session.

Next up were two more Carlin runners, Jack Harvey and Pietro Fantin, although the Brazilian lost some running when he overrevved an engine.

Geoff Uhrhane made strong progress to top British F3's quartet of Australians. On a circuit where he already had aero experience from competing in the Formula Renault Finals Series, Uhrhane leapfrogged Double R Racing team-mate Fahmi Ilyas and T-Sport's Nick McBride, and went a morale-boosting third fastest in session three.

German F3 Cup contender Mitchell Gilbert joined the test with Performance Racing, although his car runs to different engine rules based on the series' push-to-pass system.

Today's times:

Pos Driver               Team/car                                 Time   
 1. Alex Lynn            Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes      1m17.578s
 2. Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes      1m17.668s
 3. Jazeman Jaafar       Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen               1m18.227s
 4. Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen               1m18.281s
 5. Pipo Derani          Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes      1m18.308s
 6. Carlos Sainz Jr      Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen               1m18.367s
 7. Jack Harvey          Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen               1m18.386s
 8. Pietro Fantin        Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen               1m18.492s
 9. Felix Serralles      Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes      1m18.659s
10. Mitchell Gilbert     Performance Racing Dallara-Volkswagen** 1m18.736s
11. Geoff Uhrhane        Double R Racing Dallara-Mercedes        1m18.835s
12. Nick McBride         T-Sport Dallara-Nissan                  1m18.989s
13. Fahmi Ilyas          Double R Racing Dallara-Mercedes        1m19.161s
14. Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda*            1m20.454s
15. Duvashen Padayachee  Double R Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda*    1m22.768s

*= National Class
** = Not eligible for British F3