Rookie Kovalainen tops Donington test

The Finn, who starred in last year's Formula Renault championship and raced for Fortec in the Korean F3 Super Prix, beat Frenchman Bruce Jouanny to the best time of the day in his Renault-powered Dallara.

"This is fantastic," said Fortec boss Richard Dutton. "The engine is good and Heikki has driven very well. When I signed him I was told he was better than Kimi Raikkonen and he is certainly a more complete driver. He is going to be very good this year."

Kovalainen set a time under the lap record with 1m03.978s. Jouanny, driving for Promatecme UK, managed 1m04.047s after a trouble-free day in his Mugen-Honda-powered Dallara. Third fastest was another rookie, the second Fortec Dallara of Brazilian Fabio Carbone who was making his Donington debut.

Irishman Michael Keohane was the highest-placed of the Carlin Motorsport drivers, while Scholarship Class racer Adam Carroll was a promising fifth in one of last year's cars run by Sweeney Racing. Carroll's performance underlined the negligible performance gap between the Championship Class cars and the year-old Scholarship Class cars with Carroll just under four-tenths of a second slower than Kovalainen.

British F3 championship favourite Carlin Motorsport's James Courtney was only seventh having lost time early in the day with a broken fuel pump.

Heikki Kovalainen Dallara Renault 1m03.978
Bruce Jouanny Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.047s
Fabio Carbone Dallara Renault 1m04.220s
Michael Keohane Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.263s
Adam Carroll Dallara Mugen Honda 1m04.314s
Richard Antinucci Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.338s
James Courtney Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.349s
Ernani Judice Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.375s
Clivio Piccione Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.469s
Mark Taylor Dallara Mugen-Honda 1m04.583s