Carlos Huertas and Felipe Nasr claimed a 1-2 result for South America and for Carlin at Silverstone, emerging on top of a two-day test at the British Grand Prix circuit of Silverstone ahead of the start of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series season.

Huertas and Nasr set their best times during the better weather of yesterday (Tuesday), 19-year-old Huertas taking top spot by a hundredth of a second. The Colombian’s 1m 52.564s mark was six-tenths inside last year’s Silverstone pole position time. Rockingham test pacesetter Nasr’s best was 1m 52.574s; neither man could get close to that sort of pace today.

Huertas believes he could have gone quicker still yesterday: “I spun trying to better my time on my second set of fresh tyres,” he said.

Rupert Svendsen-Cook was again the leading British driver, the 20-year-old from Ipswich recording a best of 1m 53.108s in his Carlin car. The top Mercedes-powered driver was Brazilian youngster Pipo Derani for the Double R team, in eighth, just ahead of his team-mate Scott Pye.

There was encouragement today for several teams chasing the six-strong Carlin squad: Fortec’s Lucas Foresti topped the damp first morning session, while Menasheh Idafar, the reigning National class champion, bettered his Tuesday mark by nearly a second in the first afternoon session today to top the timesheet. Carlin’s Jazeman Jaafar was the quickest overall today.

Sixteen-year-old Japanese driver Kotaru Sakurai took his maiden laps in a British Formula 3 car, sampling a Hitech-run Rookie class Dallara. Despite single-seater experience limited to Formula BMW Asia outings last year and winter races in New Zealand in the Toyota Racing Series, the Tokyo-based driver quickly worked down to a time within 2.7s of his class rival Bart Hylkema (T-Sport).

Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series
Official testing, Silverstone / 8/9 March 2011

Leading runners Tuesday / Wednesday

1  Carlos Huertas / COL,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 52.564s / 1m 53.344s
2  Felipe Nasr / BRA,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 52.574s / 1m 53.059s
3  Jazeman Jaafar / MAS,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 52.828s / 1m 52.920s
4  Kevin Magnussen / DEN,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 53.066s / 1m 53.396s
5  Rupert Svendsen-COOK / GBR,  Carlin Dallara-VW  1m 53.108s / 1m 53.479s
6  Pietro Fantin / BRA,  Hitech Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 53.174s / 1m 53.469s
7  Jack Harvey / GBR,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  1m 53.305s / 1m 53.207s
8  Pipo Derani / BRA,  Double R Dallara-Mercedes  1m 53.371s / 1m 53.267s
9  Scott PYE / AUS,  Double R Dallara-Mercedes  1m 53.528s / 1m 53.306s
10  Riki Christodoulou / GBR,  Hitech Dallara-VW  1m 53.357s / 1m 53.914s etc