Aragon Formula Renault 3.5: Lotus's Vaxiviere tops Friday practice
Pre-season pacesetter Matthieu Vaxiviere transferred his testing form into Friday practice for the Formula Renault 3.5 opener at Aragon
The Lotus Formula 1 Junior driver was quickest on both high-downforce in free practice one, and the mandatory low-downforce settings in the afternoon session.
Vaxiviere recorded a lap of 1m42.013s in the morning to hold off Swedish newcomer Gustav Malja's Strakka entry by 0.007 seconds.
AVF's Beitske Visser, who had also been quick in testing, took third in practice one, finishing 0.070s shy of the benchmark time.
Vaxiviere extended his advantage over the opposition to a more comfortable 0.430s in practice two, in which his fastest lap was 1m42.337s.
Fortec's Jazeman Jaafar took second spot, ahead of the second Strakka car of Tio Ellinas.
"It wasn't so good this morning," said Vaxiviere. "I did two or three mistakes on my quickest lap.
"We also had some problem with the radio, but anyway it's fine to be P1. I didn't really care if I was P20 or P1 today, as we needed to work for the quali."
Pietro Fantin, forming half of Draco's all-Brazilian line-up, was fourth fastest in the morning, ahead of reigning Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion Nyck de Vries. The latter is sporting a contemporary McLaren F1-style livery on his DAMS machine in deference to his backer.
Jaafar completed the top six in practice one, ahead of Ellinas and Mexican Alfonso Celis Jr.
Two red flags were caused by Celis hitting trouble. The AVF car stopped at Turn 1 in the morning, and made an excursion into the Turn 5 gravel during second practice.
Manor F1 driver Roberto Merhi also caused a stoppage when his Pons mount encountered electrical difficulties in the morning.
INTERVIEW: Why is an F1 driver racing in FR3.5?
Merhi was optimistic about his weekend's prospects, despite finishing the day in 11th and 14th positions on the timing screens.
"When I was on my best lap the car stopped with an electrical problem coming out of the hairpin," said Merhi.
"But I think it's looking quite good. I went out and was straight away looking competitive in P2.
"That lap I was already three tenths quicker and the circuit is improving. I am in the best position regarding the tyres, because we didn't push at all."
The competitive order was possibly slightly confused by several teams carrying over fresh tyres from recent tests.
Fortec's Oliver Rowland ended practice two in fourth, ahead of Red Bull-backed GP3 runner-up Dean Stoneman and his DAMS team-mate de Vries.
Use of the category's low-downforce set-up is mandatory this season during Saturday qualifying sessions and the subsequent opening race of a weekend.
MORNING TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1m42.013s | - | 14 |
2 | Gustav Malja | Strakka Racing | 1m42.020s | 0.007s | 19 |
3 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1m42.083s | 0.070s | 19 |
4 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1m42.139s | 0.126s | 20 |
5 | Nyck de Vries | DAMS | 1m42.235s | 0.222s | 17 |
6 | Jazeman Jaafar | Fortec Motorsports | 1m42.253s | 0.240s | 17 |
7 | Tio Ellinas | Strakka Racing | 1m42.361s | 0.348s | 15 |
8 | Alfonso Celis | AVF | 1m42.376s | 0.363s | 17 |
9 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 1m42.432s | 0.419s | 18 |
10 | Dean Stoneman | DAMS | 1m42.563s | 0.550s | 16 |
11 | Roberto Merhi | Pons Racing | 1m42.686s | 0.673s | 10 |
12 | Tom Dillmann | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1m42.699s | 0.686s | 17 |
13 | Philo Paz Armand | Pons Racing | 1m42.925s | 0.912s | 19 |
14 | Meindert van Buuren | Lotus | 1m43.008s | 0.995s | 13 |
15 | Sean Gelael | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1m43.113s | 1.100s | 13 |
16 | Bruno Bonifacio | International Draco Racing | 1m43.185s | 1.172s | 17 |
17 | Egor Orudzhev | Arden Motorsport | 1m43.416s | 1.403s | 16 |
18 | Nicholas Latifi | Arden Motorsport | 1m43.470s | 1.457s | 14 |
19 | Roy Nissany | Tech 1 Racing | 1m44.216s | 2.203s | 9 |
20 | Aurelien Panis | Tech 1 Racing | 1m44.835s | 2.822s | 17 |
AFTERNOON TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1m42.337s | - | 13 |
2 | Jazeman Jaafar | Fortec Motorsports | 1m42.767s | 0.430s | 14 |
3 | Tio Ellinas | Strakka Racing | 1m42.805s | 0.468s | 15 |
4 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 1m42.820s | 0.483s | 14 |
5 | Dean Stoneman | DAMS | 1m42.914s | 0.577s | 16 |
6 | Nyck de Vries | DAMS | 1m43.145s | 0.808s | 14 |
7 | Tom Dillmann | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1m43.183s | 0.846s | 15 |
8 | Egor Orudzhev | Arden Motorsport | 1m43.230s | 0.893s | 18 |
9 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1m43.256s | 0.919s | 18 |
10 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1m43.332s | 0.995s | 16 |
11 | Gustav Malja | Strakka Racing | 1m43.334s | 0.997s | 14 |
12 | Meindert van Buuren | Lotus | 1m43.362s | 1.025s | 14 |
13 | Nicholas Latifi | Arden Motorsport | 1m43.582s | 1.245s | 15 |
14 | Roberto Merhi | Pons Racing | 1m43.887s | 1.550s | 14 |
15 | Alfonso Celis | AVF | 1m43.973s | 1.636s | 10 |
16 | Sean Gelael | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1m44.114s | 1.777s | 17 |
17 | Philo Paz Armand | Pons Racing | 1m44.261s | 1.924s | 16 |
18 | Aurelien Panis | Tech 1 Racing | 1m44.358s | 2.021s | 11 |
19 | Bruno Bonifacio | International Draco Racing | 1m44.703s | 2.366s | 17 |
20 | Roy Nissany | Tech 1 Racing | 1m45.701s | 3.364s | 12 |
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