Reigning champion team Carlin Motorsport found its way back to the top in the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series (Tuesday), its Australian signing Daniel Ricciardo forging ahead in official testing at the Rockingham Motor Speedway.

Ricciardo's best lap of the Northamptonshire circuit was 1m 11.038s - a second-and-half inside the official lap record and one of six sub-71.5s laps achieved by Daniel during the afternoon session. It was the first time a Dallara powered by the new Volkswagen engine has topped an F3 test.

Bedford-based Nick Tandy went second fastest at his home circuit, powering the JTR Mygale-Mercedes to a 1m 11.458s best, with Fortec's Riki Christodoulou third quickest, just eight-thousandths behind, and Wayne Boyd an encouraging fourth fastest in his T-Sport machine. Less than a second covered the top 11.

Quickest of the four National Class competitors in action was Fortec's Daniel McKenzie.

Reigning National Class Champion Jay Bridger gave his new mount, an International-spec Mygale-Mugen Honda prepared by Team West-Tec, a debut airing at Rockingham.

New date for Bucharest round

The annual visit to Romania by the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series will take place on a different date to that originally announced. The FIA GT Championship has brought forward the date for the Bucharest street-race event to the weekend of 8/9 August - three weeks earlier than first planned.

Testing times, Rockingham 17/3/20091 Daniel Ricciardo/AUS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 11.038s2 Nick Tandy/GB, JTR Mygale-Mercedes, 1m 11.458s3 Riki Christodoulou/GB, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 11.466s4 Wayne Boyd/GB, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 11.549s5 Carlos Huertas/COL, RR Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 11.556s6 Max Chilton/GB, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 11.645s7 Victor Garcia/ESP, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 11.698s8 Daisuke Nakajima/J, RR Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 11.784s9 Henry Arundel/GB, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 11.802s10 Walter Grubmüller/A, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 11.803s11 Adriano Buzaid/BR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 11.904s12 Oliver Oakes/GB, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 1m 12.159s13 Stéphane Richelmi/MON, Barazi-Epsilon Dallara-Mercedes, 1m 12.423s14 Hywel Lloyd/GB, CF Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 12.709s15 Daniel McKenzie/GB, Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 13.686s16 Max Snegirev/R, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1m 13.762s17 Victor Correa/BR, Litespeed-Mugen Honda, 1m 14.898s18 Jay Bridger/GB, West-Tec Mygale-Mugen Honda, 1m 15.373s

The Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series enjoys the backing of US tyre manufacturer Cooper Tire and is further supported by motorsport insurance specialist AON, by Sunoco Racing Fuels and by Anglo American Oil Company.