Bird fastest again in second FR3.5 practice at Moscow Raceway
Sam Bird completed a free practice double in Formula Renault 3.5 at Moscow Raceway after Jules Bianchi's time was disallowed
Bird had set the pace for much of the second half of the session, which started late after the day's programme was halted due to a power cut at the circuit around lunchtime.
The ISR driver then responded to Bianchi the first time the Frenchman pipped him with 17 minutes remaining. Shortly after that he did the same thing when championship rival Robin Frijns briefly took top spot.
But when the session went green again with five minutes to go after a brief red flag, Bianchi was one of the few drivers to get clear track for his one flying lap, and he managed a lap less than a tenth of a second quicker than his former GP2 team-mate.
His time, however, was later disallowed for going crossing the chequered flag twice and he dropped to fifth, leaving Bird as quickest, with Marco Sorensen in second just ahead of Frijns.
Late improvements from Arthur Pic and Jake Rosenzweig got them into the top six.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sam Bird ISR 1m23.675s 26 2. Marco Sorensen Lotus 1m24.111s + 0.436 33 3. Robin Frijns Fortec Motorsports 1m24.134s + 0.459 29 4. Arthur Pic DAMS 1m24.433s + 0.758 25 5. Jules Bianchi Tech 1 Racing 1m24.441s + 0.766 24 6. Nico Müller Draco 1m24.582s + 0.907 26 7. Kevin Magnussen Carlin 1m24.646s + 0.971 24 8. Jake Rosenzweig ISR 1m24.649s + 0.974 27 9. César Ramos Lotus 1m24.689s + 1.014 28 10. A.F.da Costa Arden Caterham 1m24.839s + 1.164 29 11. Nick Yelloly Comtec Racing 1m24.936s + 1.261 31 12. Kevin Korjus Tech 1 Racing 1m25.273s + 1.598 32 13. Zoel Amberg Pons Racing 1m25.299s + 1.624 31 14. Alexander Rossi Arden Caterham 1m25.304s + 1.629 23 15. Carlos Huertas Fortec Motorsports 1m25.567s + 1.892 20 16. Lucas Foresti DAMS 1m25.857s + 2.182 26 17. Yann Cunha Pons Racing 1m25.880s + 2.205 18 18. André Negrão Draco 1m25.912s + 2.237 18 19. N.Martsenko BVM Target 1m26.238s + 2.563 28 20. W.Grubmüller P1 Motorsport 1m26.289s + 2.614 20 21. Will Stevens Carlin 1m26.309s + 2.634 27 22. V.Ghirelli Comtec Racing 1m26.540s + 2.865 25 23. Sergey Sirotkin BVM Target 1m26.765s + 3.090 13 24. Mikhail Aleshin Team RFR 1m27.327s + 3.652 22 25. Daniil Move P1 Motorsport 1m27.536s + 3.861 15 26. A.Nebylitskiy Team RFR 1m27.622s + 3.947 23
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| Series | Formula V8 3.5 |
| Author | Glenn Freeman |
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