Huertas & Magnussen quick in final pre-season testing

The final pre-season test of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series saw Carlin’s Carlos Huertas and Kevin Magnussen set the pace, Colombian Huertas the quickest man on track this morning and Tuesday pacesetter Magnussen the fast man of the afternoon.

Though he went comfortably quicker than he did yesterday or this morning, Danish driver Magnussen’s afternoon best of 1m 39.671s was insufficient to unseat Huertas from the top of the timesheets. Carlos managed a 1m 39.521s in the more favorable, slightly cooler conditions of the morning session.

There was further encouragement for the Double R team and its 17-year-old Brazilian driver Pipo Derani, who followed up his good showing of yesterday with second-quickest time to Huertas this morning, third overall for the day as a whole.

The top British driver today was Racing Steps Foundation man Jack Harvey (Lincoln), who put behind him the trials of a Tuesday filled with technical issues to claim a top-six placing, just behind Hitech’s Brazilian driver Pietro Fantin.

There was only one runner in the Rookie class today: Bart Hylkema, who set 19th best time overall for T-Sport. His class rival, Hitech’s Japanese driver Kotaru Sakurai, had to sit out the test after damaging his chassis late yesterday.

The opening rounds of the championship, which is celebrating 60 years of Formula 3 in the UK, takes place not in Britain but at Monza, Italy, next weekend (16|17 April). A week after that the series rolls into Cheshire’s Oulton Park circuit for a weekend of Easter excitement.

Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series
Official testing, Snetterton, 6 April 2011

Leading runners am|pm