Derani tops wet first Masters practice

Pipo Derani put Fortec Motorsport on top in a wet opening to the Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort.

The Brazilian left it late to set his fastest time, only moving to the top of the timesheets in the final 10 minutes of the session as he got down to a 1m46.909s.

Until that late effort times had fallen throughout the session, with top spot swapping hands several times as a consequence. No one was able to better Derani’s time however, leaving him 0.182s clear at the front of the field.

Carlin’s Will Buller, who won in similarly adverse conditions last weekend at Silverstone in GP3, was the early pacesetter when conditions were at their worst. He eventually finished the session second fastest, narrowly ahead of local hero Hannes van Asseldonk (Fortec) and Prema Powerteam’s current FIA European F3 Championship leader Raffaele Marciello.

The Italian’s team-mate Daniel Juncadella and Carlin’s Carlos Sainz Jr also finished within eight tenths of Derani’s benchmark, having taken turns at the top of the timesheets earlier on in the session.

Felix Rosenqvist was also in the mix in the first half of the session, although he dropped to seventh by the end, just under one second behind Derani.

Conor Daly, making his F3 debut with Double R Racing, rounded the top eight. His best, a 1m48.143s, was more than one second down on Derani.

 Pos  Driver                Team/Car                 Time       Gap
  1.  Pipo Derani           Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m46.909s
  2.  Will Buller           Carlin Dallara-VW        1m47.091s  + 0.182s
  3.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m47.102s  + 0.193s
  4.  Raffaele Marciello    Prema Dallara-Merc       1m47.395s  + 0.486s
  5.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema Dallara-Merc       1m47.411s  + 0.502s
  6.  Carlos Sainz Jnr      Carlin Dallara-VW        1m47.560s  + 0.651s
  7.  Felix Rosenqvist      Mucke Dallara-Merc       1m47.836s  + 0.927s
  8.  Connor Daly           Double R Dallara-Merc    1m48.143s  + 1.234s
  9.  Dennis van de Laar    Carlin Dallara-VW        1m48.546s  + 1.637s
 10.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m48.774s  + 1.865s
 11.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m48.972s  + 2.063s
 12.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Dallara-Merc       1m48.991s  + 2.082s
 13.  Michael Lewis         Prema Dallara-Merc       1m49.082s  + 2.173s
 14.  Geoff Uhrhane         Double R Dallara-Merc    1m49.620s  + 2.711s
 15.  Sven Müller           Prema Dallara-Merc       1m49.747s  + 2.838s
 16.  Josh Webster*         T-Sport Dallara-Honda    1m50.734s  + 3.825s
 17.  Luis Sa Silva         Angola Dallara-Merc      1m50.859s  + 3.950s
 18.  Andrea Roda           Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc   1m51.863s  + 4.954s
 19.  Spike Goddard*        T-Sport Dallara-Honda    1m52.694s  + 5.785s
 20.  Sandro Zeller*        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc   1m53.309s  + 6.400s
 
* Invitation Class
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/derani-tops-wet-first-masters-practice

Eddie Keizan Al Keller Joe Kelly Dave Kennedy Loris Kessel