Vergne fastest in Magny-Cours test

The Red Bull-backed championship leader lapped the Circuit de Nevers in a 1m34.368s best, to put his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen 0.385 seconds clear of the Raikkonen Robertson Dallara-Mercedes of nearest rival Carlos Huertas.

The Colombian led the times heading into the final five minutes of the session, but beached his car and brought out the red flags. When running resumed, Vergne made the best of the final moments to bag the fastest time on his penultimate lap.

"It is just practice, but the car feels good and I feel good - much better than at Silverstone," said Vergne, who put in an uncharacteristically muted performance at the British track earlier this month. "I think we can go even quicker tomorrow."

British title challengers Oli Webb (Fortec) and James Calado (Carlin) set the third and fourth fastest times respectively - both just a shade over four tenths off the pace.

"Vergne is very fast," said Calado. "With his local knowledge he will be tough to beat, but I reckon I can go four tenths quicker than I have today."

Reigning Formula BMW Europe champion Felipe Nasr (Raikkonen Robertson) followed up his strong podium showing at Silverstone earlier this month by going fifth fastest, less than half a tenth clear of fellow Brazilian Lucas Foresti (Carlin), whose confidence has been boosted by strong recent results in GP3 and SudAm F3.

Hitech's William Buller, Carlin's Rupert Svendsen-Cook, reigning National Class champion Daniel McKenzie (Fortec), and Raikkonen Robertson's Daisuke Nakajima rounded out a top 10 covered by less than a second.

T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar continued to set the pace in the National Class, although team-mate James Cole's running was limited by a blown engine. Idafar lapped 1.171s off the fastest time to finish up 12th - one place and 0.019s ahead of championship class team-mate Alex Brundle.

The first 21 of the total 22 drivers were blanketed by 2.271s. The Sino Vision car of Adderley Fong lapped 4.836s off the pace but only completed nine laps before an off.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V  1m34.368s
 2.  Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  1m34.753s  + 0.385s
 3.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M  1m34.789s  + 0.421s
 4.  James Calado          Carlin               D/V  1m34.821s  + 0.453s
 5.  Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  1m34.876s  + 0.508s
 6.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V  1m34.923s  + 0.555s
 7.  William Buller        Hitech               D/V  1m34.965s  + 0.597s
 8.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V  1m34.995s  + 0.627s
 9.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M  1m35.131s  + 0.763s
10.  Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  1m35.359s  + 0.991s
11.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V  1m35.377s  + 1.009s
12.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H  1m35.539s  + 1.171s
13.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V  1m35.558s  + 1.190s
14.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V  1m35.563s  + 1.195s
15.  Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V  1m35.610s  + 1.242s
16.  Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M  1m35.851s  + 1.483s
17.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M  1m35.919s  + 1.551s
18.  Rio Haryanto          CF/Manor             D/M  1m36.240s  + 1.872s
19.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H  1m36.301s  + 1.933s
20.  Max Snegirev          Fortec               D/M  1m36.445s  + 2.077s
21.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech               D/V  1m36.639s  + 2.271s
22.  Adderley Fong         Sino-Vision          D/M  1m39.204s  + 4.836s