Turvey leads Bucharest practice day

Oliver Turvey looks set for another strong weekend of British F3 after setting the fastest time on the first day of practice at Bucharest.

The Briton has won three of the last four races and comes into this weekend's event in Romania with a nine-point championship lead. He was fifth quickest in the morning session before beating his Carlin Motorsport teammate Brendon Hartley to the top spot this afternoon.

"It's my first time on a street circuit so I'm really pleased to finish the day quickest," said Turvey, "It's great fun, you get really close to the walls, and I think I managed to find the limit in the second session.

"I think there's a little more to come, we'll look to see if we can make any improvements before qualifying tomorrow, but it's a good start to the weekend."

The street circuit's grip improved dramatically throughout the day and the quickest lap this afternoon was three and a half seconds faster than the morning's best effort.

It was Double R's Atte Mustonen the did the best lap of the morning, but he pushed too hard and crashed into the wall on his very next lap.

The four title contenders filled the next four places, with Carlin pair Hartley and Jaime Alguersuari second and third, and Sergio Perez just pipping Turvey to fourth.

But it was the afternoon session that gave the best representation of the pace that can be expected in qualifying tomorrow, and Turvey and Hartley were six tenths of a second clear of the field at the front.

Ericsson was third after he too crashed in the morning session, with Alguersuari fourth. Perez was only ninth this time, behind John Martin, Max Chilton, Mustonen, and Walter Grubmuller.

T-Sport's Steven Guerrero was the quickest National Class runner in each session and was a full eight tenths of a second clear of his nearest class rival by the end of the day.

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap 1. Oliver Turvey Carlin D/M 1:13.537 2. Brendon Hartley Carlin D/M 1:13.761 +0.224 3. Marcus Ericsson Fortec D/M 1:14.402 +0.865 4. Jaime Alguersuari Carlin D/M 1:14.407 +0.870 5. John Martin Double R D/M 1:14.585 +1.048 6. Max Chilton Hitech D/M 1:14.679 +1.142 7. Atte Mustonen Double R D/M 1:14.728 +1.191 8. Walter Grubmuller Hitech D/M 1:14.847 +1.310 9. Sergio Perez T-Sport D/H 1:14.973 +1.436 10. Sam Abay Carlin D/M 1:15.280 +1.743 11. Steven Guerrero T-Sport (N) D/H 1:15.797 +2.260 12. Henry Arundel Double R D/M 1:16.254 +2.717 13. Stefan Wilson Fluid (N) D/H 1:16.582 +3.045 14. Hywel Lloyd CF (N) D/H 1:16.635 +3.098 15. Oliver Oakes Eurotek D/M 1:16.658 +3.121 16. Jay Bridger Fluid (N) D/H 1:16.660 +3.123 17. Philip Major Fortec D/M 1:16.849 +3.312 18. Salman Al-Khalifa T-Sport (N) D/H 1:17.295 +3.758 19. Kristjan Einar Carlin (N) D/H 1:18.094 +4.557