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FORMULA RENAULT 3.5 NEWS

Stoffel Vandoorne flies in final 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 test

By Glenn Freeman

Saturday, November 24th 2012, 14:13 GMT

Stoffel Vandoorne, Fortec, Aragon FR3.5 testing 2012 Formula Renault Eurocup champion Stoffel Vandoorne broke Robin Frijns's lap record on the final day of Formula Renault 3.5 testing at Aragon on Friday.

Vandoorne, who succeeded FR3.5 champion Frijns as the winner of the Eurocup in Renault's 2-litre category this year, switched from DAMS to drive the Dutchman's title-winning car for Fortec Motorsports on the final day.

The Belgian led the way after a busy morning session to go slightly quicker than Kevin Magnussen had managed earlier in the week.

While no one was able to beat Vandoorne's morning benchmark in the afternoon, he found another three tenths of a second to set a 1m39.085s.

Frijns, who was announced as Sauber's Formula 1 reserve driver for 2013 during the day, was in attendance at the test having spent Wednesday and Thursday driving a development car for Renault.

Vandoorne confirmed earlier this week that he will accept Renault's prize offer of €500,000 for winning the Eurocup, which he is only eligible for if he steps up to FR3.5.

However, he said after the test that he is still yet to decide which team to race for next year, having driven for DAMS and Fortec during post-season testing.

"It's great to finish the year like this, and it feels pretty good to beat Robin's record with his car and with him looking on," said Vandoorne.

"Now comes the hard part: choosing the right team.

"This result is obviously going to be important in the choice we make, though there are a lot of other things to take into consideration."

Carlos Sainz Jr was second fastest for DAMS, ahead of 2012 FR3.5 frontrunner Nico Muller, who was back in action with Draco at this test.

Pos  Driver              Team            Time       Gap
 1.  Stoffel Vandoorne   Fortec          1m39.085s
 2.  Carlos Sainz Jr     DAMS            1m39.432s  + 0.347s
 3.  Nico Muller         Draco           1m39.547s  + 0.462s
 4.  Norman Nato         DAMS            1m39.588s  + 0.503s
 5.  Marco Sorensen      Lotus           1m39.592s  + 0.507s
 6.  Daniel Kvyat        Fortec          1m39.637s  + 0.552s
 7.  Zoel Amberg         Pons            1m39.847s  + 0.762s
 8.  Pietro Fantin       P1              1m39.889s  + 0.804s
 9.  Lucas Foresti       AV              1m39.954s  + 0.869s
10.  Jazeman Jaafar      Carlin          1m39.955s  + 0.870s
11.  Sergey Sirotkin     ISR             1m39.974s  + 0.889s
12.  Carlos Huertas      Carlin          1m40.178s  + 1.093s
13.  Andre Negrao        Draco           1m40.191s  + 1.106s
14.  Nick Yelloly        Pons            1m40.217s  + 1.132s
15.  Marlon Stockinger   Lotus           1m40.296s  + 1.211s
16.  Will Stevens        Arden Caterham  1m40.363s  + 1.278s
17.  Will Buller         Comtec          1m40.602s  + 1.517s
18.  Yann Cunha          AV              1m40.611s  + 1.526s
19.  Nikolay Martsenko   Tech 1          1m40.676s  + 1.591s
20.  Niccolo Schiro      Tech 1          1m40.682s  + 1.597s
21.  Esteban Guerrieri   ISR             1m40.744s  + 1.659s
22.  Matias Laine        Arden Caterham  1m41.105s  + 2.020s
23.  Tamas Pal Kiss      BVM Target      1m41.261s  + 2.176s
24.  Dimitry Suranovich  P1              1m41.322s  + 2.237s

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