Round 13 Qualifying – Silverstone

Weather: Cloudy     Track: Dry

Senna takes control of first F3 qualifying under the eyes of past F3/F1 Masters

Bruno Senna in his Raikkonen Robertson Racing Dallara Mercedes dominated the first qualifying session here at Silverstone today, whilst Championship leader and team mate Mike Conway pushed the Brazilian continuously during the session to finish second with Oliver Jarvis taking third fastest in his Carlin Motorsport Dallara Mugen-Honda. 

In the National Class Cristiano Morgado (RSA) took his Fluid Motorsport Lola-Dome Mugen Honda to fastest position with T-Sports, Rodolfo Gonzalez (VEN) in second place closely followed by Juho Annala (FIN) in his Performance Racing Europe, Dallara Mugen-Honda.

British F3 regular Stuart Hall switched teams this weekend and was a last minute entry for T-Sport in their Dallara Mugen-Honda finishing 13th in his early introduction to his new race car.

Invited driver, for the weekend’s event, Mario Moraes (BRA) in his Carlin Mugen-Honda topped the National Class with a 1min 43.985 sec lap and will line up on the grid of tomorrows first race ahead of the regular National drivers but his result will not score points in the 2006 Championship.    

In dry but windy conditions the grid of twenty-four British F3 drivers took to the full 3.2mile Grand Prix circuit at 9am for their 30 minute session enjoying the rare opportunity to experience the full GP circuit of Silverstone with the majority having their first introduction to the world-famous Northamptonshire track. Also, unique to the weekend for the Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International series was the opportunity to perform in front of the GP Masters series featuring past F1 drivers for whom most of them, the British F3 Championship was their proving ground to F1 stardom. 

All eyes will now be on the second qualifying session for British F3 at 2pm today and the first of the two races tomorrow (11:15am and 4:45pm) to see if the famous F1 family name of Senna can reduce the 47 points gap on current Championship leader Mike Conway.