Robin Frijns maintains stellar form in final pre-season test
Robin Frijns completed his stellar pre-season by topping the final day of Formula Renault 3.5 testing at Aragon on Thursday
The reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion has topped four of the six days of testing ahead of the 2012 season, which kicks off at Aragon on May 5-6.
Frijns set his best time in the morning session, after Richie Stanaway and Force India Formula 1 test driver Jules Bianchi had brief spells on top.
Teams spent part of the afternoon session concentrating on pitstop practice, and any chance of faster times being set by the leaders was effectively eliminated when a rain shower hit mid-afternoon.
That left Will Stevens, Arthur Pic and Sam Bird completing the top six, while GP3 race winner Nico Muller was seventh quickest overall and fastest in the afternoon running.
Bianchi, who was in action for Force India during free practice in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, revealed that he will not join up with the Silverstone-based team in Bahrain this weekend so he can focus on preparing for his first season in the Renault-backed championship after two years in GP2.
"With Formula 1 and Formula Renault 3.5, I really need to take a lot of things into consideration and focus," he said. "I'm not going to Bahrain because I want to devote all my attention to the first World Series by Renault meeting.
"[In testing] we've had all the conditions we should come across this season. We've worked on the races, qualifying, pitstops, starts, in the dry and in the wet.
"I feel we're ready, all we need to do now is put it all into practice."
Drivers were also given a written test based on the rules of the championship at Aragon, to give series organisers an idea of which areas of the rulebook to focus on during drivers' briefings this season.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Robin Frijns Fortec Motorsports 1m39.105s 2. Richie Stanaway Lotus 1m39.259s + 0.154s 3. Jules Bianchi Tech 1 Racing 1m39.406s + 0.301s 4. Will Stevens Carlin 1m39.422s + 0.317s 5. Arthur Pic Dams 1m39.422s + 0.317s 6. Sam Bird Isr 1m39.437s + 0.332s 7. Nico Müller International Draco Racing 1m39.497s + 0.392s 8. Carlos Huertas Fortec Motorsports 1m39.507s + 0.402s 9. Daniil Move P1 Motorsport 1m39.733s + 0.628s 10. Nick Yelloly Comtec Racing 1m39.841s + 0.736s 11. Kevin Magnussen Carlin 1m39.979s + 0.874s 12. Walter Grubmüller P1 Motorsport 1m39.983s + 0.878s 13. Marco Sorensen Lotus 1m39.985s + 0.880s 14. Kevin Korjus Tech 1 Racing 1m40.009s + 0.904s 15. Andre Negrao International Draco Racing 1m40.092s + 0.987s 16. Mikhail Aleshin Team Rfr 1m40.192s + 1.087s 17. Vittorio Ghirelli Comtec Racing 1m40.252s + 1.147s 18. Zoel Amberg Pons Racing 1m40.300s + 1.195s 19. Alexander Rossi Arden Caterham 1m40.315s + 1.210s 20. Jake Rosenzweig Isr 1m40.421s + 1.316s 21. Nicolay Martsenko Bvm Target 1m40.542s + 1.437s 22. Andy Soucek Pons Racing 1m40.621s + 1.516s 23. Lucas Foresti Dams 1m40.932s + 1.827s 24. Giovanni Venturini Bvm Target 1m40.948s + 1.843s 25. Lewis Williamson Arden Caterham 1m41.040s + 1.935s 26. Yann Cunha Pons Racing 1m41.814s + 2.709s 27. Anton Nebylitskiy Team Rfr 1m42.011s + 2.906s
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