Aleshin leads first practice at Spa
Round one winner Mikhail Aleshin maintained his strong start to the year by setting the fastest time in free practice at round two of Formula Renault 3.5 at Spa-Francorchamps
The Carlin driver's time of 1m02.972s edged out Formula 3 Euro Series graduate Stefano Coletti by 0.071 seconds.
Nathanael Berthon was third for reigning teams' champion Draco, ahead of former British F3 sparring partners Walter Grubmuller and championship leader Daniel Ricciardo.
Coletti's Comtec team-mate Greg Mansell completed the top six. Mansell arrived in the Ardennes fresh from a test of his Ginetta LMP1 car, and an outing in a Radical, at Snetterton on Thursday.
With new tyres considered to be worth between 1.5 and 2.0s at the seven kilometre circuit, lap times proved to be spread out as several drivers opted to conserve their fresh rubber. Fortec's pairing of Sten Pentus, winner of Motorland Aragon's second race earlier this month, and Jon Lancaster were among those to forsake any running on new tyres, and ended the morning outside the top 20.
Conditions over the duration of the one hour and 15 minute session were marginally disrupted by very light rain falling at the Bus Stop chicane and over parts of the back of the circuit.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin 2m02.972s 2. Stefano Coletti Comtec 2m03.043s + 0.071s 3. Nathanael Berthon Draco 2m03.523s + 0.551s 4. Walter Grubmuller P1 2m03.742s + 0.770s 5. Daniel Ricciardo Tech 1 2m03.823s + 0.851s 6. Greg Mansell Comtec 2m03.864s + 0.892s 7. Jan Charouz P1 2m03.931s + 0.959s 8. Daniil Move Junior Lotus 2m04.005s + 1.033s 9. Daniel Zampieri Pons 2m04.093s + 1.121s 10. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 2m04.157s + 1.185s 11. Albert Costa Epsilon Euskadi 2m04.157s + 1.185s 12. Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon Euskadi 2m04.363s + 1.391s 13. Filip Salaquarda ISR 2m04.382s + 1.410s 14. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP 2m04.488s + 1.516s 15. Julian Leal Draco 2m04.578s + 1.606s 16. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin 2m04.660s + 1.688s 17. Federico Leo Pons 2m04.680s + 1.708s 18. Victor Garcia KMP 2m04.736s + 1.764s 19. Esteban Guerrieri ISR 2m04.851s + 1.879s 20. Nelson Panciatici Junior Lotus 2m04.898s + 1.926s 21. Jon Lancaster Fortec 2m05.815s + 2.843s 22. Sten Pentus Fortec 2m05.882s + 2.910s 23. Sergio Canamasas Interwetten 2m06.392s + 3.420s 24. Bruno Mendez Interwetten 2m08.114s + 5.142s
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