Austrian Walter Grubmuller continued to impress as he topped the British F3 testing times at Snetterton yesterday.
The Hitech Racing driver, who took a maiden series victory in the last round at Hockenheim, topped the time sheets with a best of 1:01.434 in his Dallara-Mercedes, a tenth quicker than the Volkswagen-powered machine of Carlin Motorsport’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo’s team-mate Max Chilton was third, just two, one hundredths slower, with Fortec’s Riki Christodoulou fifth.
Series returnee Philip Major was 16th in his first appearance for Carlin, while Gabriel Dias topped the National Class time-sheets, setting an impressive time of 1:01.920, good enough for 11th overall ahead of several International Class runners.
Snetterton testing times – 23/6/09
1 INT Walter Grubmüller/AUT, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 01.434s
2 INT Daniel Ricciardo/AUS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 01.546s
3 INT Max Chilton/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 01.565s
4 INT Renger van der Zande/NED, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 01.568s
5 INT Riki Christodoulou/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 01.626s
6 INT Henry Arundel/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 01.779s
7 INT Victor Garcia/ESP, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 01.838s
8 INT Nick Tandy/GBR, JTR Mygale-Mercedes, 1m 01.841s
9 INT Daisuke Nakajima/JPN, RR Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 01.871s
10 INT Adriano Buzaid/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 01.894s
11 INT Carlos Huertas/COL, RR Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 01.920s
12 NAT Gabriel Dias/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 02.125s
13 INT Jay Bridger/GBR, Litespeed Mygale-Mugen Honda, 1m 02.135s
14 INT Wayne Boyd/GBR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 02.254s
15 INT Hywel Lloyd/GBR, CF Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 02.265s
16 INT Philip Major/CDN, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 02.581s
17 NAT Daniel McKenzie/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 02.639s
18 INT Stéphane Richelmi/MON, Barazi-Epsilon Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 02.650s
19 NAT Victor Correa/BRA, Litespeed-Mugen Honda, 1m 04.009s
20 NAT Max Snegirev/RUS, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 04.124s
Next round: Snetterton, 5 July.
Watch hour-long highlights of every British F3 round on Motors TV.
Andy Wilkinson
International
.jpg)
