Carbone top in final Le Mans test
Fabio Carbone set the fastest time in the final collective test ahead of round seven of the Formula Renault 3.5 series at Le Mans
For the Brazilian's Ultimate-Signature team it marked the end of a successful day following Carbone's teammate Esteban Guerrieri fastest time in the morning session.
Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin came closest to Carbone's time of 1:44.823s, but had to settle for second, seven tenths of a second adrift. Aleshin will be hoping for an improvement on the Nurburgring, where the Russian was sidelined by hydraulic pump failure before he even reached the grid of the feature race.
Marco Bonanomi improved with a late effort to move into third spot for Comtec, ahead of Charles Pic.
The second session was wet and the Dunlop chicane, a scene of frequent excursions during the opening day of the meeting, continued to catch people out. A quarter of the way into the 45 minute session the red flags were brought out, while marshals, armed with brushes and blowers, sought to alleviate the problems by clearing water and gravel from the track.
Carbone was fastest before the interval on a 1:46.230s, ahead of Bertrand Baguette.
The Belgian completed few laps during the morning as his Draco team set about solving technical problems. Prema drivers Alvaro Barba and Miguel Molina were next up in third and fourth.
On the restart, Pic moved into P1 setting a time of 1:45.972, before Carbone responded with the first lap of the day under 1:45s.
There was markedly less spray as the session drew to a close, but drivers continued to encounter difficulties at Dunlop.
Sergey Afanasiev spun his KTR car, and many ran outside the bounds of the track over the tarmac run-off. Yellow flags, to cover for Robert Wickens' beached Carlin car, meant that there were few improvements in lap times during the final minutes.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Fabio Carbone Ultimate-Signature 1:44.823 16 2. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin Motorsport 1:45.533 +0.710 19 3. Marco Bonanomi Red Devil Team Comtec 1:45.933 +1.110 19 4. Charles Pic Tech 1 Racing 1:45.972 +1.149 8 5. Marcos Martinez Pons Racing 1:46.023 +1.200 7 6. Esteban Guerrieri Ultimate-Signature 1:46.137 +1.314 12 7. Giedo Van Der Garde P1 Motorsport 1:46.310 +1.487 22 8. Miguel Molina Prema Powerteam 1:46.332 +1.509 20 9. James Walker Fortec Motorsport 1:46.385 +1.562 19 10. Bertrand Baguette International Draco Racing 1:46.590 +1.767 19 11. Salvador Duran Interwetten.Com Racing 1:46.643 +1.820 18 12. Marco Barba International Draco Racing 1:46.909 +2.086 20 13. Alexandre Marsoin Epsilon-Euskadi 1:46.938 +2.115 19 14. Robert Wickens Carlin Motorsport 1:46.970 +2.147 16 15. Pasquale Disabatino Red Devil Team Comtec 1:47.291 +2.468 17 16. Julien Jousse Tech 1 Racing 1:47.434 +2.611 19 17. Fairuz Fauzy Fortec Motorsport 1:47.455 +2.632 16 18. Paolo Maria Nocera Rc Motorsport 1:47.548 +2.725 18 19. Alvaro Barba Prema Powerteam 1:48.074 +3.251 20 20. Sergey Afanasiev Ktr 1:48.144 +3.321 16 21. Pippa Mann P1 Motorsport 1:48.269 +3.446 19 22. Mario Romancini Epsilon-Euskadi 1:48.464 +3.641 18 23. Pablo Sanchez Interwetten.Com Racing 1:48.499 +3.676 17 24. Aleix Alcaraz Pons Racing 1:48.796 +3.973 8 25. Claudio Cantelli Rc Motorsport 1:48.958 +4.135 18 26. Siso Cunill Ktr 1:48.966 +4.143 18
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