Grubmuller tops Oulton Park test

Grubmuller, who is entering his third season of F3 with Hitech Racing this year, went quickest in the final session of the test on Wednesday afternoon in his Dallara Mercedes.

He pipped JTR's Nick Tandy, who made his first appearance of the season in the new 2009-spec Mygale Mercedes, by 0.054 seconds.

Formula Renault UK race-winner Riki Christodoulou set third fastest time for Fortec Motorsport in one of its Championship Class Dallara Mercedes cars. His efforts to tie up a race deal with the team are ongoing.

Carlin Motorsport's Daniel Ricciardo set fourth fastest time and was quickest of the Volkswagen-powered runners in one of the team's four Dallaras.

The start of the test was delayed while many teams struggled to pass noise tests. The cars normally run to 114db, but teams were forced to reduce this figure by 6db to meet Oulton's requirements and thus reduce their cars' engine power outputs.

Monagasque racer Stephane Richelmi was forced to sit out the second day of the test after crashing his Brazi Epsilon Dallara Mercedes heavily on day one.

The next official test is at Rockingham next Tuesday (March 17).

Pos  Driver              Team            Car                 Time      
 1.  Walter Grubmüller   Hitech          Dallara-Mercedes    1m 27.753s
 2.  Nick Tandy          JTR             Mygale-Mercedes     1m 27.807s
 3.  Riki Christodoulou  Fortec          Dallara-Mercedes    1m 27.903s
 4.  Daniel Ricciardo    Carlin          Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 27.924s
 5.  Henry Arundel       Carlin          Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 28.049s
 6.  Max Chilton         Carlin          Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 28.153s
 7.  Oliver Oakes        Carlin          Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 28.357s
 8.  Adriano Buzaid      T-Sport         Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 28.525s
 9.  Carlos Huertas      RR              Dallara-Mercedes    1m 28.693s
10.  Daisuke Nakajima    RR              Dallara-Mercedes    1m 29.152s
11.  Wayne Boyd          T-Sport         Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 29.294s
12.  Hywel Lloyd         CF Racing       Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m 29.405s
13.  Victor Garcia       Fortec          Dallara-Mercedes    1m 29.509s
14.  Daniel McKenzie     Fortec          Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m 29.937s
15.  Victor Correa       Litespeed       SLC R1-Mugen Honda  1m 31.365s
16.  Stéphane Richelmi   Barazi-Epsilon  Dallara-Mercedes    1m 31.606s
17.  Max Snegirev        West-Tec        Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m 32.597s