Guerrieri quickest in Le Mans test
Esteban Guerrieri was fastest during a wet Formula Renault 3.5 series collective test at Le Mans on Friday morning
The Argentinean, who was brought in at round four of the championship at Silverstone to beef up Ultimate-Signature's driver line-up, set a time of 1:47.343, half a second quicker than Miguel Molina, the winner last time out at the Nurburgring following the post-race disqualification of Salvador Duran.
"In the early laps the track conditions were very difficult, but the rain eased-up after a while," said Molina. "Salvador has given me his trophy from last weekend, and I need to continue and develop on this success over the final races.
"I know the Le Mans circuit from Formula Renault 2.0, and with Estoril and Barcelona coming up (where Molina won in 2007) I hope my end of the season will prove to be as good as last year's."
Monaco winner Charles Pic was third, on home ground for himself and the Toulouse-based Tech 1 Racing. The 18-year-old also produced a competitive showing during Thursday's collective tests, where he finished second fastest behind Draco's Marco Barba.
Giedo van der Garde showed no sign of losing his competitive edge in fourth. The championship leader headed Fortec's James Walker, who was fastest when the circuit conditions were at their most treacherous. Fortec's F3 engineer Mick Kouros is now overseeing both Fairuz Fauzy and Walker's machines this weekend. Walker's early effort of a 1:50s had proved difficult to top, before everyone found chunks of time as the 45-minute session drew to a close.
The session was abandoned four minutes prematurely when Brazilian Claudio Cantelli found the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane, and a tow truck was required a to extricate the RC Motorsport car.
The corner had proved to be the location of much drama on Thursday, catching out Fauzy, Pablo Sanchez and KTR's newcomer Sergey Afanasiev.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Esteban Guerrieri Ultimate-Signature 1:47.343 16 2. Miguel Molina Prema Powerteam 1:47.863 +0.520 18 3. Charles Pic Tech 1 Racing 1:47.930 +0.587 16 4. Giedo Van Der Garde P1 Motorsport 1:47.954 +0.611 17 5. James Walker Fortec Motorsport 1:48.059 +0.716 12 6. Fabio Carbone Ultimate-Signature 1:48.320 +0.977 16 7. Marco Barba International Draco Racing 1:48.653 +1.310 17 8. Paolo Maria Nocera Rc Motorsport 1:48.674 +1.331 17 9. Pasquale Disabatino Red Devil Team Comtec 1:48.992 +1.649 13 10. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin Motorsport 1:49.161 +1.818 14 11. Marco Bonanomi Red Devil Team Comtec 1:49.353 +2.010 16 12. Robert Wickens Carlin Motorsport 1:49.364 +2.021 14 13. Pablo Sanchez Interwetten.Com Racing 1:49.443 +2.100 18 14. Salvador Duran Interwetten.Com Racing 1:49.448 +2.105 17 15. Alexandre Marsoin Epsilon-Euskadi 1:49.818 +2.475 15 16. Fairuz Fauzy Fortec Motorsport 1:50.007 +2.664 12 17. Mario Romancini Epsilon-Euskadi 1:50.357 +3.014 15 18. Alvaro Barba Prema Powerteam 1:50.482 +3.139 18 19. Aleix Alcaraz Pons Racing 1:50.504 +3.161 16 20. Sergey Afanasiev Ktr 1:50.669 +3.326 17 21. Claudio Cantelli Rc Motorsport 1:50.699 +3.356 15 22. Julien Jousse Tech 1 Racing 1:50.984 +3.641 13 23. Siso Cunill Ktr 1:51.878 +4.535 17 24. Marcos Martinez Pons Racing 1:52.100 +4.757 4 25. Pippa Mann P1 Motorsport 1:53.965 +6.622 16 26. Bertrand Baguette International Draco Racing 1:54.721 +7.378 5
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