Pic quickest in Barcelona test
Tech 1 Racing's Charles Pic recorded the fastest time on the opening day of the final pre-season Formula Renault 3.5 collective test at Barcelona
The French driver's time of 1m32.085s, recorded on Monday afternoon, provided Pic with a four-tenth of a second advantage over Draco's Marco Barba. Having topped last month's group test at Valencia, Barba confirmed his status as a leading candidate for success in 2009.
Two other winter testing pace-setters, James Walker and Miguel Molina, staged an evenly matched contest during the morning. At the end of the first hour, the duel was settled in favour of Walker who held off the Spaniard at the top of the timesheets by just 0.005s. The pair's efforts equated to third and fourth overall at the close of play.
"It gets complicated when you start converting times for the whole day," said P1 Motorsport's Walker, "but this morning everyone used one, if not two, new sets of tyres, and like for like we were quickest. We used two new sets. Straight out we set a 1m33.1s, which on it's own turned out to be quite good, before making some adjustments to the car to replicate a qualifying set-up.
"That produced the 32.5. The conditions were good, but in the afternoon I think that the track was faster, and we were then running with a heavy fuel load. As the test ended we had some rain, and there could be some more on the way for tomorrow."
The top six was completed by Pons Racing's Marcos Martinez in fifth, ahead of Carlin Motorsport driver Oliver Turvey. Both men recorded their fastest times in the afternoon.
Just 22 cars, from an expected field of 26, were on hand at this final opportunity to test before the opening race weekend at Barcelona on April 19th.
At Comtec, Riki Christodoulo filled in for Alex Marsoin. Christodoulou has tested extensively with Fortec Motorsport's British F3 squad over recent weeks, and the 20-year-old Formula Renault UK race winner acquitted himself respectably with the 10th fastest time of the day, within a second of Pic's benchmark.
The much-anticipated first appearance of the year by Italian squad RC Motorsport took place with former Comtec driver Pasquale di Sabatino at the wheel of a solitary machine.
Following his Indy Racing League exploits, Franck Perera made a return to Europe for an outing with Interwetten Racing. The Frenchman was on familiar territory, having made his only World Series race start at the Catalan circuit with Walter Raus's team at the final meeting of 2006.
Tobias Hegewald again filled the Austrian team's second seat in preparation for his FIA Formula Two assault. Interwetten are set to run Mihai Marinescu today.
Tech 1 Racing's new signing Daniil Move propped up the bottom of the classification. The Russian displayed signs of rustiness, having been out of action since departing from the KTR team mid-season last year.
KTR was absent from proceedings, and the Belgian team has now missed all three collective tests of 2009. Team boss Kurt Mollekens was reported to be in continued negotiations with drivers last Friday.
Angelo Rosin's Vicenza based Prema Powerteam fielded a car for the Flavio Briatore-associated Italian Frankie Provenzano, alongside Colombian Omar Leal. Prema was previously thought to have been close to concluding a deal with Italian F3 runner-up, and A1GP Team Italy regular, Edoardo Piscopo.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Charles Pic Tech 1 1:32.085 2. Marco Barba Draco 1:32.502 +0.417 3. James Walker P1 1:32.510 +0.425 4. Miguel Molina Ultimate 1:32.515 +0.430 5. Marcos Martinez Pons 1:32.619 +0.534 6. Oliver Turvey Carlin 1:32.619 +0.534 7. Adrian Valles Epsilon 1:32.784 +0.699 8. Bertrand Baguette Draco 1:32.833 +0.748 9. Jaime Alguersuari Carlin 1:33.004 +0.919 10. Riki Christodoulou Comtec 1:33.084 +0.999 11. Franck Perera Interwetten 1:33.170 +1.085 12. Fairuz Fauzy Fortec 1:33.233 +1.148 13. Pasquale di Sabatino RC 1:33.264 +1.179 14. Greg Mansell Ultimate 1:33.506 +1.421 15. Chris van der Drift Epsilon 1:33.556 +1.471 16. Anton Nebylitskiy Comtec 1:33.649 +1.564 17. Federico Leo Pons 1:33.757 +1.672 18. Sten Pentus Fortec 1:33.874 +1.789 19. Frankie Provenzano Prema 1:33.924 +1.839 20. Tobias Hegewald Interwetten 1:34.109 +2.024 21. Julian Leal Prema 1:34.162 +2.077 22. Daniil Move Tech 1 1:34.521 +2.436
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