Jazeman Jaafar tops Snetterton British Formula 3 test as Carlin dominates

On a day that started wet and gradually dried, Jaafar - who is entering his third British F3 season - outpaced English team-mate Jack Harvey by 0.251 seconds.

British F3 newcomer Carlos Sainz Jr topped the morning session, which ended just as the cars had taken on slick tyres but with lap times still a few seconds off a dry pace. The Spaniard fell to fourth in the afternoon, behind Pietro Fantin but ahead of Harry Tincknell.

Reigning Formula Renault UK champion Alex Lynn topped the Fortec foursome. Although the team was some way off Carlin's pace, this was the first day any of the Daventry squad's new Dallara F312s had run, whereas the Carlin quintet shook down at Pembrey last Thursday.

T-Sport's International Class runner Nick McBride is awaiting the completion of his new Nissan-powered F312, so began his testing programme in one of the squad's National Class cars. Top of that class was F3 veteran Hywel Lloyd, who drove his own CF Racing machine while he waits to sign drivers for the season.

Briton Richard Bradley, who raced in Japanese F3 last season, drove a sixth Carlin machine - one of the older-spec F308 cars - to warm up for a return to the Far East this season. Silverstone-based Performance Racing, which is competing in the German F3 Cup, also attended the test.

Double R Racing opted to miss this week's test. The team ran prospective National Class entrant Yuki Shiraishi at Pembrey last week and was highly impressed with the Japanese, but an illness in the family has thrown his plans into uncertainty. The squad is returning to the Welsh track this week to run Australian Duvashen Padayachee, a graduate of the JK Racing Asia Series (Formula BMW) and he will likely join the official test at Rockingham next week.

Testing continues at Snetterton tomorrow. The new F312 chassis is said to produce more downforce than the F308 and be better in high-speed corners, which will be just as well in the expected wet conditions.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 1m40.096s 2. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW 1m40.347s + 0.251s 3. Pietro Fantin Carlin Dallara-VW 1m40.377s + 0.281s 4. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW 1m40.476s + 0.380s 5. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 1m40.569s + 0.473s 6. Mitchell Gilbert Performance Dallara-VW** 1m41.017s + 0.921s 7. Alex Lynn Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m41.170s + 1.074s 8. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m41.285s + 1.189s 9. Richard Bradley Carlin Dallara-VW** 1m41.429s + 1.333s 10. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m41.524s + 1.428s 11. Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m42.132s + 2.036s 12. Hywel Lloyd CF Dallara-Mugen* 1m42.689s + 2.593s 13. Nick McBride T-Sport Dallara-Mugen* 1m43.344s + 3.248s 14. Yannick Mettler Performance Dallara-VW** 1m43.347s + 3.251s 15. John Bryant-Meisner Performance Dallara-VW** 1m43.973s + 3.877s 16. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen* 1m44.891s + 4.795s *= National Class ** = Not eligible for British F3