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Jerez FR3.5 test: Jazeman Jaafar quickest on day one

Jazeman Jaafar topped the opening day of the final Formula Renault 3.5 pre-season test at Jerez on Monday

The Malaysian driver led the way in the morning running, and his benchmark was not bettered in the afternoon session as series rookie Oliver Rowland fell just one tenth of a second short of going quickest overall.

Jaafar was not as much of a factor in the afternoon, which he put down to trying "something different" with the car set-up that did not work out.

Carlin could take Formula Renault 3.5 sabbatical

Rowland, who has been a regular frontrunner in testing this winter with Fortec, set his best lap with just half an hour remaining in the day. He revealed that he went off the track on his final lap.

Fellow Formula Renault 2.0 graduate Pierre Gasly - last year's FR Eurocup champion - was another to miss out on a late improvement as a red flag in the closing minutes halted the Red Bull junior on a lap which he felt would have put him in the top five overall.

Will Stevens ended the day third-fastest with his best lap from the morning, while Rowland's closest challengers in the afternoon - Marlon Stockinger, Carlos Sainz Jr and Sergey Sirotkin - completed the top six for the day.

Only 23 of this season's 26 cars were in action at Jerez. Championship-winning team Carlin has sat out all of pre-season so far, while Comtec Racing only ran one car with Nikolay Martsenko.

COMBINED DAY ONE TIMES:

Pos  Driver               Team     Time       Gap
 1.  Jazeman Jaafar       ISR      1m26.840s
 2.  Oliver Rowland       Fortec   1m26.986s  +0.146s
 3.  Will Stevens         Strakka  1m26.998s  +0.158s
 4.  Marlon Stockinger    Lotus    1m27.002s  +0.162s
 5.  Carlos Sainz         DAMS     1m27.003s  +0.163s
 6.  Sergey Sirotkin      Fortec   1m27.025s  +0.185s
 7.  Matias Laine         Strakka  1m27.027s  +0.187s
 8.  Matthieu Vaxiviere   Lotus    1m27.051s  +0.211s
 9.  Norman Nato          DAMS     1m27.079s  +0.239s
10.  Nigel Melker         ISR      1m27.186s  +0.346s
11.  Nikolay Martsenko    Comtec   1m27.281s  +0.441s
12.  Pierre Gasly         Arden    1m27.313s  +0.473s
13.  Luca Ghiotto         Draco    1m27.340s  +0.500s
14.  Pietro Fantin        Draco    1m27.391s  +0.551s
15.  Roberto Merhi        Zeta     1m27.655s  +0.815s
16.  Marco Sorensen       Tech 1   1m27.656s  +0.816s
17.  Tio Ellinas          Tech 1   1m27.670s  +0.830s
18.  Will Buller          Arden    1m27.729s  +0.889s
19.  Meindert van Buuren  Pons     1m27.881s  +1.041s
20.  Zoel Amberg          AVF      1m27.918s  +1.078s
21.  Beitske Visser       AVF      1m28.605s  +1.765s
22.  Roman Mavlanov       Zeta     1m28.873s  +2.033s
23.  Robert Visoiu        Pons     1m29.115s  +2.275s

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