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Tamas Pal Kiss breaks Valencia lap record in Auto GP testing

Series returnee Tamas Pal Kiss broke the unofficial Auto GP lap record at Valencia on the championship's opening day of collective testing of 2014

Kiss's fastest lap of 1m21.480s for Zele was two seconds under the Valencia Auto GP lap record set by recent Rapax GP2 signing Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in 2012.

GP3 race winner Kiss is benefitting from more orderly preparations to his season than in 2013. The Hungarian was left on the sidelines through lack of finance, before finally securing a late deal to join Auto GP for round three of the championship at the Hungaroring.

Campos GP2 driver Kimiya Sato claimed second on the timesheets for MLR71, run by his former team Euronova Racing.

Former grand prix driver Taki Inoue, who is assisting the 2012 Auto GP title contender, revealed that Sato is participating in the test to assist the team and its new drivers, and for the same reason will compete in Auto GP this year in parallel to GP2.

Regular 2013 frontrunner Kevin Giovesi finished third for newcomer Puma 3 M-Sport, which enjoys a technical partnership with former Durango GP2 team boss Ivone Pinton's Eurotech concern.

Belgian Sam Dejonghe ended the day top rookie and a promising fourth fastest for Virtuosi UK.

Team-mate Andrea Roda, who returns to the Norfolk team for a second season, claimed third quickest in the morning session behind Super Nova's Michela Cerruti and Sato.

Reigning champion team Super Nova also fielded Markus Pommer and Gianmarco Raimondo. Formula 2 race winner Pommer was confident of further progress on the final day of testing on Wednesday, after experiencing a small issue with his pedals during his fastest lap.

Canadian Raimondo's running was limited to a shakedown at the close of play, in preparation for a more intense programme on Wednesday.

At Euronova, Sato will hand driving duties over to former team-mate Yoshitaka Kuroda on Wednesday. Salvatore Deplano, a late addition to the test, will drive the MLR71 entry.

Combined Tuesday times:

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Tamas Pal Kiss     Zele             1m21.197s           42
 2.  Kimiya Sato        MLR71/Euronova   1m21.390s  +0.193s  47
 3.  Kevin Giovesi      Puma 3/Eurotech  1m21.489s  +0.292s  47
 4.  Sam DeJonghe       Virtuosi         1m21.734s  +0.537s  36
 5.  Andrea Roda        Virtuosi         1m21.743s  +0.546s  54
 6.  Markus Pommer      Super Nova       1m22.098s  +0.901s  52
 7.  Michela Cerruti    Super Nova       1m22.651s  +1.454s  61
 8.  Richard Gonda      Virtuosi         1m22.976s  +1.779s  63
 9.  Giuseppe Cipriani  Ibiza            1m23.134s  +1.937s  59
10.  Loris Spinelli     Puma 3/Eurotech  1m23.273s  +2.076s  62
11.  Francesco Dracone  Ibiza            1m23.436s  +2.239s  52
12.  Michele La Rosa    MLR71/Euronova   1m25.117s  +3.920s  41
13.  Salvatore Deplano  MLR71/Euronova   1m25.117s  +3.920s  11
14.  Antonio Spavone    Zele             1m25.191s  +3.994s  11

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