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Alex Lynn comfortably heads Oulton Park British Formula 3 free practice for Fortec

Reigning Formula Renault UK champion Alex Lynn took fastest time at Oulton Park by almost half a second in free practice for the opening round of the British Formula 3 International Series

The Essex teenager, who is making his British F3 debut this weekend, set a scorching run of three consecutive laps quicker than anyone else three-quarters of the way through the 55-minute session.

The closest rival to Lynn's Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes was the identical car of Puerto Rican team-mate Felix Serralles, who is making his race debut in F3 (Lynn competed in the European F3 Open Winter Series rounds at Paul Ricard).

Jack Harvey headed the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen contingent in third, just ahead of team-mate and fellow Englishman Harry Tincknell. Another Carlin driver, the spectacular Jazeman Jaafar, topped the times for roughly half the session before fading to eighth behind Hannes van Asseldonk (Fortec), Pietro Fantin (Carlin) and Carlos Sainz Jr (Carlin).

While Fortec's Mercedes-engined Dallaras were 1-2-3-4 on each of the three speed traps, it is believed that Carlin is not sandbagging with its VW powerplants, and that instead the team may need to shed some downforce from its cars.

In the National Class, T-Sport's Spike Goddard was fastest by six tenths of a second.

The session remained largely incident-free until Geoff Uhrhane, who completed a last-minute deal to join Double R Racing and only shook his car down this week, lost control into the fast Druids right-hander and clouted the barriers.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                 Time       Gap
 1.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m27.795s
 2.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m28.289s  + 0.494s
 3.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW        1m28.332s  + 0.537s
 4.  Harry Tincknell       Carlin Dallara-VW        1m28.422s  + 0.627s
 5.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m28.506s  + 0.711s
 6.  Pietro Fantin         Carlin Dallara-VW        1m28.555s  + 0.760s
 7.  Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-VW        1m28.651s  + 0.856s
 8.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW        1m28.674s  + 0.879s
 9.  Pipo Derani           Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m28.874s  + 1.079s
10.  Fahmi Ilyas           Double R Dallara-Merc    1m30.047s  + 2.252s
11.  Nick McBride          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan   1m30.074s  + 2.279s
12.  Geoff Uhrhane         Double R Dallara-Merc    1m31.190s  + 3.395s
13.  Spike Goddard         T-Sport Dallara-Mugen*   1m31.215s  + 3.420s
14.  Duvashen Padayachee   Double R Dallara-Mugen*  1m31.858s  + 4.063s

* National class

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