JHR Developments makes BRDC British F3 test debut at Donington

Photo: BRDC British F3

JHR Developments made its official BRDC British Formula 3 test debut in the first of two days of pre-event running on Donington Park’s Grand Prix layout.

The successful British Formula 4 outfit is fielding Formula Ford 1600 graduates Max Marzorati and Carter Williams on part-time programmes this year, and has completed private testing prior to this week with its two cars.

Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke started the day as the fastest driver, just pipping Douglas Motorsport duo Manaf Hijjawi and Keirn Jewiss in the opening session, and with Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick and Lanan Racing’s Piers Prior completing a top five covered by less than one tenth of a second.

Laptimes improved by over a second in the second morning session, with Double R Racing’s Louis Foster setting what would be the best time of the day with a few minutes left of running.

He displaced series returnee Kush Maini from the top of the times by just 0.005s, with the Indian confirmed for a second round with debuting team Hitech GP after claiming two podiums with the squad in the Oulton Park season opener.

A further 0.082s back was Lanan Racing’s Bart Horsten in third in another very close session in which the top 17 were within a second of Foster.

Double R was on top again in the first afternoon session, with Foster just coming short of bettering his morning benchmark. His team-mate Benjamin Pedersen was second fastest, which lifted him to sixth overall behind the session two times of Douglas’s Jewiss and Ulysse De Pauw.

Williams set fewer laps than the rest of the drivers but had improved his pace to be just outside of the session’s top 10.

Horsten was quickest in session four and may well have beaten Foster’s laptime had he not caused a red flag when he and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Nico Varrone collided exiting Old Hairpin.

Test day one results