Marco Wittmann got the fourth best laptime this morning in Zandvoort, while Alexander Sims led an ART one-two in the first of the two qualifying sessions for the Formula 3 Masters at Zandvoort. In an extraordinarily close session, Sims came out on top by just 0.004 seconds over his team-mate – and 2009 Masters winner – Valtteri Bottas. F3 Euro Series championship leader Edoardo Mortara had to settle for third for Signature, alongside team-mate Marco Wittmann, but was also less than a tenth down on Sims.

Roberto Merhi took fifth for Mucke, with Carlin’s Jean-Eric Vergne improving on his practice form to uphold British championship honour in sixth. GP3 frontrunner and top local driver Nigel Melker (Mucke) did manage to make it out for qualifying following his practice crash, but could not replicate his earlier top six form on his F3 debut and ended up 11th.

Prema’s Daniel Juncadella brought up the rear having crashed just six minutes into the session.

Pos  Driver                  Team         Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Alexander Sims          ART          D/M  1m31.724s
 2.  Valtteri Bottas         ART          D/M  1m31.728s  + 0.004s
 3.  Edoardo Mortara         Signature    D/V  1m31.812s  + 0.088s
 4.  Marco Wittmann          Signature    D/V  1m31.841s  + 0.117s
 5.  Roberto Merhi           Mucke        D/M  1m31.991s  + 0.267s
 6.  Jean-Eric Vergne        Carlin       D/V  1m31.992s  + 0.268s
 7.  Laurens Vanthoor        Signature    D/V  1m32.077s  + 0.353s
 8.  Carlos Munoz            Mucke        D/M  1m32.127s  + 0.403s
 9.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Motopark     D/V  1m32.150s  + 0.426s
10.  Jim Pla                 ART          D/M  1m32.544s  + 0.820s
11.  Nigel Melker            Mucke        D/M  1m32.667s  + 0.943s
12.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin       D/V  1m32.724s  + 1.000s
13.  William Buller          Hitech       D/V  1m32.747s  + 1.023s
14.  Gabriel Dias            Hitech       D/V  1m32.803s  + 1.079s
15.  Stef Dusseldorp         Signature    D/V  1m32.868s  + 1.144s
16.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook    Carlin       D/V  1m33.008s  + 1.284s
17.  Nicolas Marroc          Prema        D/M  1m33.008s  + 1.284s
18.  Lucas Foresti           Carlin       D/V  1m33.046s  + 1.322s
19.  Matias Laine            Motopark     D/V  1m33.170s  + 1.446s
20.  Hywel Lloyd             CF/Manor     D/M  1m33.194s  + 1.470s
21.  Wayne Boyd              Sino Vision  D/M  1m33.753s  + 2.029s
22.  Adderly Fong            Sino Vision  D/M  1m33.834s  + 2.110s
23.  Rio Haryanto            CF/Manor     D/M  1m35.889s  + 4.165s
24.  Daniel Juncadella       Prema        D/M  1m36.221s  + 4.497s

Post in: Drivers, Marco Wittmann