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Hitech Racing posted the quickest time in official testing at Donington Park today ahead of this weekend’s second round of the Lloyds TSB Insurance British Formula 3 International Series. The Silverstone based team with Championship leader Marko Asmer headed the 32-car field almost half a second clear of the opposition.
His team-mate, Austrian Walter Grubmüller, completed an impressive 63 laps of the 1.9mile Leicestershire circuit. The 18 year-old, in his first ever season in F3, steadily improved over the two and a half hour session, setting his fastest time five laps from the finish.
Walter Grubmüller: #6 “We struggled a bit and had a couple of red flags during the new tyre runs in testing today but hopefully it will be better on Saturday. There’s a bit to find in the car and in me but if we work on that I’m sure we can go a lot better. I like the Donington circuit, I’ve been here a few times, and it’s a nice fast, flowing track. If we start off this weekend where we left off at Oulton and make it into the top ten, I think that will be good.”
Marko Asmer: #7 “We had a good day at Donington today and I have to say things look good for the weekend. But, we have to see how things go on Saturday. If the others don’t improve too much and if everything stays the same as it was today, then we should be on pole, but it’s too early to say too much at the moment.”
David Hayle: “Testing was as we expected with Marko. We’ve now become accustomed to being quickest in testing, but the fact that we were so quick today proves not only that he has a good car, but that he is also a very talented and experienced driver. I can’t explain why we’re so far off with Walter though. It’s not a difficult circuit and there are only five corners, but we’re nearly two seconds off, it just doesn’t make sense. However Walter is relatively inexperienced and suffered a number of stop-start red flag situations which didn’t allow him to get into a rhythm.”
Testing times from Donington Park
1. MARKO ASMER 1:01.177
2. Stephen Jelley 1:01.619
3. Sebastian Hohenthal 1:01.735
4. Greg Mansell 1:01.735
5. Atte Mustonen 1:02.174
6. Jonathan Kennard 1:02.250
7. Maro Engel 1:02.307
8. Sam Bird 1:02.653
9. Rodolfo Gonzalez 1:02.693
10. Alberto Valerio 1:02.761
15. WALTER GRUBMULLER 1:03.000
This weekend’s event at the Leicestershire track will kick off with two official qualifying sessions on Saturday at 11.20 and 15.40 for the two races which take place on Sunday at 12.30 and 16.00
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