Van der Zande tops Snetterton test

The Dutch former F3 Euro Series ace lapped the Norfolk track in a 1m01.726s best during the fastest and coolest final session, in which running was extended by 20 minutes after a midday downpour washed out the second of three sessions.

Van der Zande found 0.148s between the first session of the day, which he also topped, and the final one and ended up more than two tenths clear of the rest of the field.

"It's been a good day, but it's just testing," said van der Zande. "I found some time in myself with my braking at the Esses and I've improved a lot at the last chicane, where I was so s**t in the [official] test [10 days ago], but now I'm super quick.

"It's just a matter of working hard and I think we can still gain a bit at the second corner."

Fortec's Victor Garcia, confidence buoyed by a decent showing in the official test here two weeks ago, finished an impressive second fastest as one of only four drivers to break the 62-second barrier.

The Spaniard was fastest of all in the first part of the lap and shaded Daisuke Nakajima (Double R) and van der Zande's Hitech team-mate Walter Grubmuller by 0.008s and 0.031s respectively.

Max Chilton finished fastest of Carlin's four drivers with fifth best time, just 0.021s clear of T-Sport's Wayne Boyd, who rounded out the top six.

Championship leader Daniel Ricciardo (Carlin) went fourth fastest in the hotter morning session, but was one of only two drivers to lose time as conditions cooled after the downpour and he ended up eighth fastest, over half a second adrift of the pace.

Daniel McKenzie (Fortec) was comfortably the quickest of the National Class runners, 11th fastest overall.

Pos Driver                   Team                Car           Time
 1. Renger van der Zande     Hitech              D/M      1m01.726s
 2. Victor Garcia            Fortec              D/M      1m01.945s
 3. Daisuke Nakajima         Double R            D/M      1m01.953s
 4. Walter Grubmuller        Hitech              D/M      1m01.976s
 5. Max Chilton              Carlin              D/V      1m02.012s
 6. Wayne Boyd               T-Sport             D/V      1m02.033s
 7. Riki Christodoulou       Fortec              D/M      1m02.055s
 8. Daniel Ricciardo         Carlin              D/V      1m02.178s
 9. Henry Arundel            Carlin              D/V      1m02.317s
10. Jay Bridger              Bridger/Litespeed   M/H      1m02.436s
11. Daniel McKenzie          Fortec              D/H      1m02.477s
12. Carlos Huertas           Double R            D/M      1m02.584s
13. Nick Tandy               JTR                 M/M      1m02.633s
14. Adriano Buzaid           T-Sport             D/V      1m02.643s
15. Gabriel Dias             T-Sport             D/H      1m02.677s
16. Phillip Major            Carlin              D/V      1m02.740s
17. Stephane Richelmi        Barazi Epsilon      D/M      1m03.074s
18. Hywel Lloyd              CF Racing           D/H      1m03.107s
19. Victor Correa            Litespeed           S/H      1m03.346s
20. Max Snegirev             West-Tec            D/H      1m04.052s
21. Aaron Steele             Litespeed           S/H      1m05.559s