SEAN Walkinshaw enjoyed two positive days of officially-timed European Formula Three open testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
It was the Team West-Tec driver's maiden experience of the famous Spanish track, which will host the finale of the 2013 season in early November.
After posting a pair of top six results in the recently concluded Winter Series the 19-year-old Copa class driver continued to progress in his Dallara-Toyota ahead of the main championship campaign – his first in F3 – which begins at the end of April.
Lapping with a day-one best of one minute and 45.334 seconds (159.1 km/h) – setting the time during the third of four sessions to place third in class at that point – the Gloucester Rugby-backed youngster went on to again finish in the Copa top six on his final outing of the day.
Walkinshaw, younger brother of Gloucester co-owner Ryan, managed to find an additional 0.4 seconds to conclude the test with a quickest time of 1.44.978 seconds (159.6 km/h).
Consistently competitive throughout day two, he was fourth in class in session one, third in session two and fifth in both afternoon runs where he set his fastest lap of all.
"The test, overall, was pretty good", said the former Cheltenham College student.
"It was a very productive couple of days and I certainly learnt a lot more about the car.
"The overall lap time wasn't as quick as I wanted as we didn't find a good balance on the new tyres, so couldn't get the best out of them.
"We did a lot of good work focusing on race distances though. We found a great set-up and the times on those runs were good and consistent.
"From what we managed to work through I think we've laid some strong foundations for the main season."
Paul Ricard HTTT in the south of France will host the opening event of the 2013 European Formula Three Open season on April 27 and 28.
The UK round of the eight-event championship will take place over the weekend of July 13 and 14 at Silverstone, with the season concluding in Barcelona in November.
