Nasr leads Brands pre-race testing

The Brazilian was the only driver to lap below 1m18s in the morning's dry opening session. His 1m17.847s best was just over four tenths shy of Oli Webb's 2010 lap record and led a Carlin lock-out of the top six places.

"The car was great in all conditions," said Nasr, who was only 11th fastest in the afternoon's wet session. "I love this circuit to drive and I am looking forward to the weekend.

"If I get a choice, I would prefer it to be dry for the races because I think maybe I have a bigger advantage in those conditions."

Colombian Carlos Huertas lapped 0.225s slower than Nasr in the morning session, before topping the afternoon's wet running by 0.870s from reigning British Formula Ford champion Scott Pye (Double R).

Rookie Jack Harvey was an impressive third fastest in the dry, ahead of Carlin team-mates Jazeman Jaafar, Kevin Magnussen and Rupert Svendsen-Cook.

Jaafar, Svendsen-Cook and Magnussen were all top six runners in the wet, behind Fortec's Lucas Foresti.

Foresti's Fortec team-mate Will Buller set the seventh fastest time in the dry, ahead of Hitech's Pietro Fantin, who later went off at Druids in the wet session.

Pye and Sino Vision's Adderly Fong rounded out a top 10 covered by 1.077s on the 2.4-mile circuit. Fong was also 10th fastest in the wet, behind Double R's Pipo Derani, Fantin and reigning South American F3 champion Yann Cunha (T-Sport).

Series returnee Max Snegirev was 17th fastest in the morning for Hitech, before going 16th quickest in the wet. F2 rival Miki Monras was 20th in both sessions in the third VW-powered Hitech car.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                  Time       Gap
 1.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.847s
 2.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.072s  + 0.225s
 3.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.410s  + 0.563s
 4.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.423s  + 0.576s
 5.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.484s  + 0.637s
 6.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.501s  + 0.654s
 7.  William Buller        Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m18.577s  + 0.730s
 8.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW         1m18.773s  + 0.926s
 9.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc     1m18.821s  + 0.974s
10.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m18.924s  + 1.077s
11.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m19.013s  + 1.166s
12.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m19.154s  + 1.307s
13.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m19.518s  + 1.671s
14.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m19.578s  + 1.731s
15.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc     1m19.954s  + 2.107s
16.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m20.491s  + 2.644s
17.  Max Snegirev          Hitech Dallara-VW         1m20.678s  + 2.831s
18.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m21.202s  + 3.355s
19.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     1m21.382s  + 3.535s
20.  Miki Monras           Hitech Dallara-VW         1m21.541s  + 3.694s
21.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen      1m25.438s  + 7.591s