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Hitech Racing reaffirmed themselves as pre-season championship favourites for the Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series after a dominant performance in the official two-day test at Croft this week. Twenty-two year-old Marko Asmer, returning to the team he drove for in 2004/5, topped the classification in three of the four timed sessions around the 2.1mile North Yorkshire track.
The Estonian F3 race winner was consistently the quickest of the 29 cars in the first three sessions and was just pipped to the overall fastest time by Raikkonen Robertson Racing’s Stephen Jelley. Throughout the course of the two days, Asmer, who also competes in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship this season, was able to provide valuable help to his young team-mate Walter Grubmüller who improved his times throughout the test.
The 18 year-old F3 rookie is improving at every outing and following a successful event in last weekend’s Australian F3 Championship round, in which he finished third, is also brimming with confidence ahead of the season opening races.
David Hayle: “This was a bit of a stop-start test for everyone. One minute sunshine, the next snow. Nevertheless we had a programme of developments to work through with Marko which hampered our outright pace, so to still be fastest on day one and fractionally off on day two was a nice surprise because we weren’t going for outright lap times.
“Walter for me was most impressive. He arrived back into the UK on Monday from competing in four races at the Australian GP meeting in Melbourne and set his best times of the pre season testing so far. With jet-lag and the adjustment of 35 degrees to 3 degrees, Walter kept his concentration and posted the eighth fastest time which has put everyone in great spirits for the test at Oulton next week.”
Both Buckingham-based racers will pilot Dallara F307 Mercedes HWAs this season in the 22-round championship which kicks off at Oulton Park on Easter Monday April 9th. Next Tuesday, the Silverstone-based team will head to the Cheshire track for the final official test before qualifying for the opening rounds on Saturday April 7th.
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