Nasr fastest in Rockingham test

The reigning Formula BMW Europe champion shot to the top in the second of the sessions with a 1m13.247s best, and though he could not manage to better his earlier time in session three, he again set the pace.

"I have had a good break from racing since the last meeting," said the
17-year-old Brazilian. "The team has had a break also, a chance to look at what we needed to do. We¹ve made some changes and, so far, they seem to be working."

Nasr's best time of the day was 0.036 seconds quicker than that of his closest rival, Carlin's Malaysian driver Jazeman Jaafar, but was more than two seconds off the testing pace set when the F3 teams visited Rockingham in March.

Strong gusts across the speedway's main straight were thought to be the cause. "The wind was very bad," said Nasr, "every lap it felt different on the straight."

Nasr's Raikkonen Robertson team-mates Daisuke Nakajima and Carlos Huertas both made the top eight today, while Carlin's James Calado, who was quickest in the first of the day's sessions, ended the day third.

Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne set the sixth best time, behind Fortec's Daniel McKenzie. Less than a second covered the top 12.

Menasheh Idafar outpaced his T-Sport team-mate James Cole in each of the three sessions to lead the National class.

Litespeed F3 unveiled its new 'Lotus Junior' livery in today's test.

The team used the six-week break between the last round at Hockenheim and this weekend's Rockingham meeting to send its Mercedes-powered Dallara chassis to the Lotus Racing factory for a repaint in the grand prix team's green and yellow colours.

Team boss Nino Judge said: "The new identity underlines the Litespeed F3 link with Lotus Racing as part of the team's driver development ladder."

Litespeed driver Jay Bridger ended the test 20th fastest of the 21 drivers.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  1m13.247s
 2.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V  1m13.283s  + 0.036s
 3.  James Calado          Carlin               D/V  1m13.476s  + 0.229s
 4.  Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  1m13.488s  + 0.241s
 5.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M  1m13.490s  + 0.243s
 6.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V  1m13.493s  + 0.246s
 7.  Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V  1m13.510s  + 0.263s
 8.  Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  1m13.512s  + 0.265s
 9.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech               D/V  1m13.528s  + 0.281s
10.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M  1m13.762s  + 0.515s
11.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H  1m14.065s  + 0.818s
12.  Will Buller           Hitech               D/V  1m14.104s  + 0.857s
13.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V  1m14.158s  + 0.911s
14.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V  1m14.343s  + 1.096s
15.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V  1m14.361s  + 1.114s
16.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V  1m14.431s  + 1.184s
17.  Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M  1m14.623s  + 1.376s
18.  Max Snegirev          Fortec               D/M  1m14.795s  + 1.548s
19.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H  1m14.904s  + 1.657s
20.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M  1m15.861s  + 2.614s
21.  Adderley Fong         Sino Vision          D/M  1m15.995s  + 2.748s