Pizzonia fastest in Brands Hatch testing

The Brazilian ace set the pace in all four test sessions, posting a best for the day of 1m18.536s for the challenging Grand Prix circuit in his Manor Motorsport Dallara F300. In the last session of the afternoon as the fastest times were set, Pizzonia stormed round to eclipse the times set by Narain Karthikeyan and Takuma Sato moments earlier.

While Pizzonia set a scorching pace, his championship rival Tomas Scheckter had a torrid day in his Stewart Racing Dallara. An accident at Paddock Hill Bend in the second test session left his car too badly damaged to take part in the rest of the day's testing. 'I won't get any more running for the rest of the day,' admitted Scheckter at lunch time. 'I put a front wheel onto the gravel and it pulled me in,' he said. 'This was track time I needed at a circuit I don't know,' he added.

Sato led the chase of the flying Pizzonia and set second fastest time of the day, lapping within three-tenths of a second of the Brazilian, with Karthikeyan almost on the same time.

Next up were Andy Priaulx, Ben Collins and Milos Pavlovic, all lapping within a second of Pizzonia's time.
In the Scholarship class, Gary Paffett again set the pace as he attempts to maintain his 100% record this season.

1 Antonio Pizzonia (Dallara F300) 1m18.536s
2 Takuma Sato (Dallara F300) 1m18.843s
3 Narain Karthikeyan (Dallara F300) 1m18.867s
4 Andy Priaulx (Dallara F300) 1m19.226s
5 Ben Collins (Dallara F300) 1m19.457s
6 Milos Pavlovic (Dallara F300) 1m19.532s
7 Andrew Kirkaldy (Dallara F300) 1m19.561s
8 Matt Davies (Dallara F300) 1m19.614s
9 Nicolas Kiesa (Dallara F300) 1m19.972s
10 Michael Bentwood (Dallara F300) 1m20.006s