Daly sets the pace for Carlin in GP3

24 November 2011

Carlin’s Conor Daly set the fastest time in this afternoon’s official GP3 test in Valencia. The young American has been a frontrunner throughout the two day test and set the fastest time in today’s afternoon session with just 10 minutes remaining. Tom Blomqvist enjoyed a consistent day in the second Carlin car and was eleventh quickest.

Carlin fielded three drivers during the two day test in Spain, with Will Buller joining Daly in the Carlin garage on Wednesday before Tom Blomqvist took over driving duties in the number 16 car on Thursday.

Wednesday morning’s run saw Daly finishing 4th while Buller impressed finishing 11th in what was his first GP3 outing. During the afternoon test the Carlin duo worked on race simulations and longer runs finishing 10th and 17th respectively.

On Thursday morning Daly was joined in the car by British driver Tom Blomqvist. In only his second day behind the wheel of a GP3 car, Blomqvist was15th quickest in the morning session before improving to go 11th fastest overall later in the afternoon.

Daly was on the pace once again on Thursday morning, although his progress was temporarily halted by an exhaust problem. The American hotshot hit back in the afternoon however to post the quickest time of the session.

Reflecting on a successful test Conor Daly said, “This morning I think we had the potential to be quite a lot quicker than we were but we had an issue with the exhaust right after my quickest lap, so I think we could have been very close to the top had it not been for that. We knew we had good pace in the car, so we only made a few small adjustments before the afternoon session. I felt really comfortable this afternoon; I was able to just keep improving as the car felt really good. It’s great to end P1 and nice to be at the top of the timesheets. I’m very happy with our test here.”

The GP3 cars will be out on track one more time in 2011, for an official two day test in Jerez next week.