Aleshin fastest in Magny-Cours test

The Carlin man's closest title rival Daniel Ricciardo led the way in the morning's wet conditions, but the Australian slipped to third after dry running in the second session.

Draco's French rookie Nathanael Berthon ended the day in second, some 0.4 seconds adrift of Aleshin, who also had a chance to try a Renault Formula 1 car during the lunchbreak.

After an out of sorts weekend at Brno, in which he struggled with a high temperature, Spaniard Albert Costa bounced back to more accustomed form by setting the fourth fastest time for Epsilon Euskadi.

Aleshin's Carlin team-mate Jake Rosenzweig took fifth spot, while improving British Formula 3 graduate Victor Garcia completed the top six for French-based KMP Racing.

European Formula 3 Open champion Bruno Mendez was unable to take part in the second session after a heavy crash this morning.

"I am fine, no bruises or anything, there was just too much damage to the car to go out again," reported Mendez.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m27.475s
 2.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m27.829s  + 0.354s
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m27.914s  + 0.439s
 4.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m27.920s  + 0.445s
 5.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m28.147s  + 0.672s
 6.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m28.225s  + 0.750s
 7.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m28.263s  + 0.788s
 8.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m28.282s  + 0.807s
 9.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m28.311s  + 0.836s
10.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m28.359s  + 0.884s
11.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     1m28.397s  + 0.922s
12.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  1m28.445s  + 0.970s
13.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m28.482s  + 1.007s
14.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m28.521s  + 1.046s
15.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m28.645s  + 1.170s
16.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m28.679s  + 1.204s
17.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m28.716s  + 1.241s
18.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m28.785s  + 1.310s
19.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m28.800s  + 1.325s
20.  Brendon Hartley    Tech 1           1m28.842s  + 1.367s
21.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m28.943s  + 1.468s
22.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m29.366s  + 1.891s
23.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m29.612s  + 2.137s
24.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  1m44.988s  + 17.513s