Draco top second WSR test session

The Italian team, resplendent in their new Force India style livery, benefited from being the only runners to fit new tyres in the afternoon.

Baguette's 1:30.198s was just over a tenth faster than his Spanish team-mate, but higher temperatures meant that it was impossible for Baguette to repeat the times set during the morning, meaning Charles Pic had the fastest time of the day overall. The Tech 1 driver ended the afternoon in third spot, some six tenths of a second behind Barba.

The afternoon saw intensive running, as the test was the first opportunity for many teams to experience working with the new 2009 aerodynamic package. Following Formula One's example, changes to the regulations have seen a multitude of winglets and flip-ups removed from the cars.

Tech 1 Racing, USR, Prema Powerteam and Carlin Motorsport took in an extra day of running on Monday, making use of the two hours of testing authorised per year on a circuit not hosting a race on the Formula Renault 3.5 calendar.

Miguel Molina followed up his second fastest time in the morning with fourth fastest for USR in the later session.

"A few days ago, I didn't have a drive," he said. "In this time of economic crisis, I need to put in a strong season to say thank you to my partners. I feel very at home in the USR team, everything is in place for me to do well."

Fairuz Fauzy, who has now concluded his buy-in of Fortec's Formula Renault 3.5 team, was fifth fastest, ahead of local driver Adrian Valles who had been invited to tryout Epsilon Euskadi's machine.

James Walker put in a string of consistent laps on his way to seventh.

"I'm really comfortable at P1 Motorsport," reported Walker. "We were already fast at Paul Ricard at the end of 2008 and we were on the pace again today. We're very happy with the new aerodynamics of the FR 3.5. The aim now is to get the measure of the car in this configuration. This is very positive."

Jamie Alguersuari was again quickest of the Formula 3 graduates in eighth. Ex-F1 engineer James Robinson was working with Alguersuari at Carlin for the first time.

Pos  Driver               Team             Time
 1.  Bertrand Baguette    Draco            1:30.198
 2.  Marco Barba          Draco            1:30.324
 3.  Charles Pic          Tech 1           1:30.945
 4.  Miguel Molina        USR              1:31.383
 5.  Fairuz Fauzy         Mofaz Fortec     1:31.638
 6.  Adrian Valles        Epsilon Euskadi  1:31.704
 7.  James Walker         P1               1:31.740
 8.  Jaime Alguersuari    Carlin           1:31.773
 9.  Edoardo Piscopo      Prema            1:32.163
10.  Oliver Turvey        Carlin           1:32.165
11.  Marco Martinez       Pons             1:32.201
12.  Greg Mansell         USR              1:32.326
13.  Chris van der Drift  Epsilon Euskadi  1:32.333
14.  Sten Pentus          Mofaz Fortec     1:32.897
15.  Julian Leal          Prema            1:33.054
16.  Frankie Provenzano   Tech 1           1:33.280
17.  Anton Nebilitskiy    Comtec           1:33.585
18.  Federico Leo         Pons             1:33.877