Collard on pace as testing concludes at Oulton Park

Carlin’s Ricky Collard has made his intentions for the weekend well and truly apparent having set the fastest time of the day as official testing for the BRDC British F3 round at Oulton Park concluded this afternoon. Championship leader Ricky Collard was a strong runner through proceedings today and clinched the fastest time of the day in the final session . Colton Herta, who is once again deputising for an absent Lando Norris, was a consistent front runner throughout as the track went green early this morning eventually finishing the day with the second quickest time overall while team mate Ameya Vaidyanathan improved well throughout to set the seventh fastest time overall as testing came to an end.

Following a successful day of testing at the Cheshire circuit earlier this week the three Carlin men were back in their British Formula Three machinery for a final day of testing before the weekend begins in earnest tomorrow morning. Consisting of four 30 minute sessions, the field were able to use this time to get back up to speed and work on their weekend set up ahead of the fourth round of the 2016 championship.

Currently leading the way in the standings it was a strong day for Collard who, despite an off in the first session this morning, was a consistent runner at the front end of the field. The British racer had set the third fastest time in the morning session and by the mid-point of the day was running as the fourth fastest man on track. However as had been the case for the majority of the runners the fourth session was the quickest of the day and Collard had soon closed within two hundredths of a second of team mate Herta at the top before smashing the time completely and breaking the 1:30 barrier – a time no one else was  to better.

Reflecting on testing, Collard said, “This morning didn’t start off too well for us after the crash however it was a real team effort to get the car out for the next session. It’s great to be fastest today and it gives us a strong starting point for the rest of the weekend and tomorrow when it really counts. I’m comfortable and confident in the car and overall feel pretty relaxed ahead of tomorrow.”

Stepping in to the car in place of Lando Norris for the second race weekend this season Herta was quick to reacquaint himself with the car. With the first two sessions on the day complete Herta had already set the second quickest time of the day and was pushing to find that little bit extra. A shortened third session due to a red flag caused by Krishnaraaj Mahadik meant little improvement up and down the grid and left the fourth and final session of the day as the one in which to set the benchmark.

Herta stepped up to the plate and with minutes complete had already set the quickest time of the day however his team mate bettered this in the closing stages and Herta was to settle for second overall.

Vaidyanathan was also making progress over the course of the days’ testing and was a top ten runner in the early morning session. Getting to grips with the circuit the Indian racer left it until the final session of the day to set his quickest lap, which in the opening stages placed him fourth with just Matheus Leist and his two Carlin team mates ahead.

As the flag fell to mark the end of track action, and all the cars returned to the pit lane, Vaidyanthan had set the seventh quickest time overall for the day as testing came to a close marking a successful day for the team.

The real test for the three Carlin drivers will be tomorrow morning with what is likely to be a hotly contested qualifying session which will set the grid for the race later in the afternoon. Following a break on Sunday the racing will resume on Monday with two further races.