Panciatici fastest in Renault 3.5 test

The Frenchman's lap of 1m33.975s lowered Victor Garcia's morning benchmark by half a second. KMP Racing's Garcia again surpassed expectations, improving his morning time by two tenths to finish second in the classification.

Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver, and reigning British Formula 3 champion, Daniel Ricciardo was third having led the order for much of the afternoon in his Tech 1 Racing entry.

Fellow Red Bull Junior driver Jean Eric Vergne ended the session just 0.02s shy of the Australian. Vergne topped yesterday's British F3 test at Rockingham for Carlin Motorsport and is considering running a parallel programme in Formula Renault 3.5 with SG Formula.

Daniel Zampieri and P1 Motorsport's Renault F1 test driver Jan Charouz completed the top six.

Team-mates in Formula Renault 2.0 with Epsilon Euskadi last season, Albert Costa and Nathanael Berthon were involved in an unfortunate collision this afternoon. Despite the setback, Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion Costa was a solid ninth fastest.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Nelson Panciatici  Lotus Junior     1m33.975s
 2.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m34.236s  + 0.261s
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m34.336s  + 0.361s
 4.  Jean Eric Vergne   SG Formula       1m34.354s  + 0.379s
 5.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m34.380s  + 0.405s
 6.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m34.402s  + 0.427s
 7.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m34.643s  + 0.668s
 8.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m34.650s  + 0.675s
 9.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m34.678s  + 0.703s
10.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m34.685s  + 0.710s
11.  Marcos Martinez    SG Formula       1m34.730s  + 0.755s
12.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m34.821s  + 0.846s
13.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m34.871s  + 0.896s
14.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m34.938s  + 0.963s
15.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m34.951s  + 0.976s
16.  Daniil Move        Lotus Junior     1m35.005s  + 1.030s
17.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m35.023s  + 1.048s
18.  Anton Nebylitskyi  KMP              1m35.199s  + 1.224s
19.  Brendon Hartley    Tech 1           1m35.459s  + 1.484s
20.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m35.462s  + 1.487s
21.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m35.634s  + 1.659s
22.  Bruno Mendez       ISR              1m36.173s  + 2.198s
23.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m36.329s  + 2.354s
24.  Sergio Canamasas   Fortec           1m36.335s  + 2.360s