Rossi quickest on day two at Aragon
ISR's Alexander Rossi recorded the fastest time on the second day of Formula Renault 3.5 collective testing at Motorland Aragon on Tuesday
A morning lap of 1m42.798s finally secured the American a position at the top of the timesheets. The GP3 race-winner had finished second on Monday and demonstrated competitive pace in last weekend's Barcelona test.
Rossi is aiming to continue his relationship with Czech team ISR, which fielded him in Formula Master and in a one-off at this year's Monaco Formula Renault 3.5 meeting, should he opt to enter the championship in 2011.
"I have already finished second or third in a session a few times," said Rossi. "[Yesterday] morning we got everything right and that earned us the fastest time. We are consistent and quick, we are working well together and I really like this car.
"These tests have only confirmed our opinion of ISR. If we are going to take part in the FR 3.5 Series in 2011, then it will be with ISR and no one else."
Cold track temperatures persuaded many drivers to begin the morning with long runs. P1 Motorsport's Brendon Hartley set the initial pace, and would end the morning just a tenth adrift of Rossi.
Monday's pacesetter Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was third for Comtec. Along with KMP Racing's Anton Nebylitskiy, these four drivers also dominated much of the afternoon session.
However, 2009 Italian Formula 3 champion Daniel Zampieri and this year's Italian F3 frontrunner Stephane Richelmi would make strong laps to take first and second spots in the closing minutes.
Zampieri's effort will be a welcome boost to BVM Target, which is preparing for its maiden season, while Richelmi is also likely to make the step into Formula Renault 3.5 in 2011.
"Yesterday went quite well," said Richelmi's advisor and former racer Cyril Sauvage. "Because of that we will not be going for outright performance today, we're more working with the team on developing the set-up. This is the championship we want to be in. I am sure we will make a decision on which team we will be with before the end of year."
Jean-Eric Vergne enjoyed an outing with Carlin, which took him to his British Formula 3 title, and the Frenchman will remain with the team for today's prize test day.
A remarkable line-up of single-seater prospects have been invited by Renault-Sport Technologies to experience the category.
Among the drivers are Formula Renault 2.0 champions Kevin Korjus (Eurocup), Tom Blomqvist (UK Series), Francesco Frisone (Italian), Ludwig Ghidi (NEC) and Mika Kunranta (Finnish).
F3 is represented by Vergne, Marco Barba (European F3 Open champion), Tom Dillmann (German champion), Yuji Kunimoto (Japanese champion) and Italian leaders Richelmi and Cesar Ramos.
F3 Euro Series champion Edoardo Mortara was a last-minute cancellation, but runner-up Marco Wittman and third-placed Valtteri Bottas are in attendance.
Session one: Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Alexander Rossi ISR 1m42.798s 2. Brendon Hartley P1 1m42.824s + 0.026s 3. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Comtec 1m43.091s + 0.293s 4. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP 1m43.122s + 0.324s 5. Stephane Richelmi Draco 1m43.177s + 0.379s 6. Daniel Zampieri BVM Target 1m43.259s + 0.461s 7. Nelson Panciatici KMP 1m43.334s + 0.536s 8. Walter Grubmuller P1 1m43.512s + 0.714s 9. Jean Eric Vergne Carlin 1m43.659s + 0.861s 10. Daniel de Jong Comtec 1m43.678s + 0.880s 11. Nathanael Berthon Tech 1 1m43.742s + 0.944s 12. Cesar Ramos Draco 1m43.779s + 0.981s 13. Fabio Onidi ISR 1m44.149s + 1.351s 14. Sergey Afanasiev Tech 1 1m44.264s + 1.466s 15. Mirko Bortolotti BVM Target 1m44.285s + 1.487s 16. Daniel Mckenzie Fortec 1m44.422s + 1.624s 17. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin 1m44.587s + 1.789s 18. Dominic Storey Junior Lotus 1m44.702s + 1.904s 19. Genis Olive Epsilon Euskadi 1m45.435s + 2.637s 20. Will Stevens Epsilon Euskadi 1m45.759s + 2.961s 21. Max Snegirev Fortec 1m54.147s + 11.349s 22. Dean Stoneman Junior Lotus Session two: Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Daniel Zampieri BVM Target 1m43.072s 2. Stephane Richelmi Draco 1m43.207s + 0.135s 3. Brendon Hartley P1 1m43.286s + 0.214s 4. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP 1m43.325s + 0.253s 5. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Comtec 1m43.417s + 0.345s 6. Alexander Rossi ISR 1m43.483s + 0.411s 7. Nathanael Berthon Tech 1 1m43.497s + 0.425s 8. Mirko Bortolotti BVM Target 1m43.513s + 0.441s 9. Walter Grubmuller P1 1m43.627s + 0.555s 10. Nelson Panciatici KMP 1m43.711s + 0.639s 11. Jean Eric Vergne Carlin 1m43.763s + 0.691s 12. Daniel de Jong Comtec 1m43.953s + 0.881s 13. Cesar Ramos Draco 1m43.955s + 0.883s 14. Sergey Afanasiev Tech 1 1m44.067s + 0.995s 15. Fabio Onidi ISR 1m44.351s + 1.279s 16. Genis Olive Epsilon Euskadi 1m44.354s + 1.282s 17. Dominic Storey Junior Lotus 1m44.361s + 1.289s 18. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin 1m44.563s + 1.491s 19. Dean Stoneman Junior Lotus 1m44.681s + 1.609s 20. Daniel Mckenzie Fortec 1m45.017s + 1.945s 21. Will Stevens Epsilon Euskadi 1m45.141s + 2.069s 22. Max Snegirev Fortec 1m49.445s + 6.373s
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