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Surtees ends F2 testing on top

Henry Surtees ended pre-season testing for the Formula 2 category on top when he set the fastest time in mixed weather conditions at Silverstone on Monday

The Briton lapped more than a second quicker than Red Bull's Mikhail Aleshin with former World Series by Renault front-runner Julien Jousse third.

Former British F3 driver Sebastian Hohenthal was fourth fastest ahead of Robert Wickens, Jolyon Palmer and Andy Soucek.

"It was quite an impressive day for us," said Surtees afterwards. "I knew I was there or thereabouts in terms of pace, but I didn't know how close to the front I could be. I was able to make some positive changes to the car, including quite a big set-up change shortly before my best lap.

"I could feel that I was on a pretty good lap and it was really pleasing to see that I had gone over a second faster than anyone else.

"Of course, the hard work starts in Valencia but it is still good for the confidence to finish on top here."

Any chance Surtees' rivals might have had of dislodging him in the final session - when the drivers were permitted to use new Avon tyres and the 'overboost button' for the first time - was ruined by heavy rain.

But Soucek used the wet track time well regardless to run fastest in the difficult conditions, his time of 2m02.502s just 0.008s ahead of Formula Palmer Audi champion Jason Moore.

Pos  Driver               Time      Gap
 1. Henry Surtees        1:38.920  +
 2. Mikhail Aleshin      1:40.022  + 1.102
 3. Julien Jousse        1:40.481  + 1.561
 4. Sebastian Hohenthal  1:40.637  + 1.717
 5. Robert Wickens       1:40.720  + 1.800
 6. Jolyon Palmer        1:40.800  + 1.880
 7. Andy Soucek          1:40.808  + 1.888
 8. Jack Clarke          1:40.861  + 1.941
 9. Philipp Eng          1:41.451  + 2.531
10. Carolos Iaconelli    1:41.873  + 2.953
11. Jason Moore          1:41.876  + 2.956
12. Tobias Hegewald      1:41.982  + 3.062
13. Milos Pavlovic       1:42.114  + 3.194
14. Alex Brundle         1:42.164  + 3.244
15. Edoardo Piscopo      1:42.428  + 3.508
16. Natacha Gachnang     1:42.535  + 3.615
17. Mirko Bortolotti     1:42.634  + 3.714
18. Armaan Ebrahim       1:43.607  + 4.687
19. German Sanchez       1:44.284  + 5.364
20. Henri Karjalainen    1:44.495  + 5.575
21. Tom Gladdis          1:45.175  + 6.255
22. Nicola De Marco      1:45.587  + 6.667
23. Jens Hoing           1:47.724  + 8.804
24. Pietro Gandolfi      1:48.465  + 9.545

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