Nasr tops Rockingham test day one

The Brazilian lapped the Corby 'roval' in a 1m12.687s best, to beat Carlin team-mate Kevin Magnussen to the top spot by 0.143 seconds.

Hitech's Pietro Fantin continued his impressive progress this season by setting the third fastest time, just 0.013s shy of Magnussen - winner of two races during the most recent round of the championship at Snetterton last month.

Carlin trio Rupert Svendsen-Cook, Jazeman Jaafar and Carlos Huertas ensured Volkswagen-powered cars locked out the top six positions on day one.

Malaysian Jaafar led the way in two of the first three sessions, but crucially failed to improve on his best time during the morning's second session, when the fastest times were set, while rain prevented further progress for all 19 drivers in the fourth and final session of the day.

Fortec's Will Buller was the quickest of the Mercedes-powered runners with seventh fastest time overall, less than a tenth ahead of reigning British Formula Ford champion Scott Pye (Double R).

Buller's Fortec team-mate Lucas Foresti was ninth fastest, while T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar rounded out a top 10 covered by just over six tenths of a second.

Former British Formula Ford race winner Garry Findlay drove in place of fellow Brit Riki Christodoulou in the second of Hitech's Dallara-Volkswagens and managed to lap 18th fastest, 2.897s shy of the fastest time.

Carlin's Jack Harvey skipped day one of the test to sit an exam.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                  Time       Gap
 1.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m12.687s
 2.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW         1m12.830s  + 0.143s
 3.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW         1m12.843s  + 0.168s
 4.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW         1m12.857s  + 0.170s
 5.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m12.969s  + 0.282s
 6.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m13.047s  + 0.360s
 7.  William Buller        Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m13.085s  + 0.398s
 8.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc     1m13.184s  + 0.497s
 9.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m13.238s  + 0.551s
10.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m13.293s  + 0.606s
11.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m13.402s  + 0.715s
12.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc     1m13.747s  + 1.060s
13.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m13.750s  + 1.063s
14.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m14.206s  + 1.519s
15.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m14.209s  + 1.522s
16.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m14.461s  + 1.774s
17.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     1m14.816s  + 2.129s
18.  Garry Findlay         Hitech Dallara-VW         1m15.584s  + 2.897s
19.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen      1m16.502s  + 3.815s