Lynn leads the way in first practice

Alex Lynn made a perfect start to the 2013 Star River‧Windsor Arch Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix weekend, topping the first practice session.

by: Arnau Viñals Vendrell

Making his second appearance on the streets of Macau, the Theodore Racing by Prema driver spent most of 45-minute session in the top 10, before charging to the top of the sheets two minutes before the chequered flag with a 2m14.495s lap.

Last year’s winner António Félix da Costa went very close to knocking Lynn off the top at the end of the session, the Carlin-Volkswagen driver falling just 0.061s short of the benchmark time with his last effort.

Behind Félix da Costa, EuroInternational’s Stefano Coletti was third fastest. The Monegasque, who finished fifth in this year’s GP2 Series, was quickly back up to speed in an F3 car, moving into the top three with eight minutes of the session remaining, and ultimately finishing third with a best of 2m14.603s.

Felix Rosenqvist had an action packed session, the GR Asia with Mücke driver going fastest with seven minutes of the session remaining, before hitting the wall at Matsuya just moments later. The crash ended the Swede’s session early, although he still wound up fourth fastest, just 0.167s off Lynn’s time.

Alexander Sims (ThreeBond with T-Sport) was fifth fastest, while Carlin’s Jazeman Jaafar, who is returning to F3 after spending the season in Formula Renault 3.5, finished sixth, having spent much of the session on top before flurry of quick times in the last 10 minutes.

Carlos Sainz Jnr won the unwelcome award of being the first driver to hit the wall, his Carlin-Volkswagen car damaged when he crashed at Fishermen’s Bend less than 10 minutes into the session.

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