Testing: Leinders heads timesheets

Bas Leinders outpaced championship leader Franck Montagny in the first practice session for this weekend's Dallara Nissan World Series race, but the major talking point was the speed of the cars, which shattered the two year-old lap record at Zolder

Apr 24, 2003, 4:27 PM

The Belgian's fastest lap of 1m21.540s blitzed the previous circuit record, set by Thomas Biaggi in a '96 spec Formula 3000 car during a Euro F3000 race at the track in 2001.

Finn Heikki Kovalainen set the third fastest time, ahead of Spaniard's Ander Vilariño and Angel Burgueño. The Carlin duo of Bruce Jouanny and Narain Karthikeyan set the eighth and tenth fastest times respectively.

Former F1 driver Enrique Bernoldi set the 19th best time of the session, after a last-minute team switch. The Brazilian raced for RC Motorsport at the season-opening race in Jarama, but has moved across to GD Racing.

Bas Leinders Racing Engineering 1m21.540s
Franck Montagny Gabord Competition 1m21.609s
Heikki Kovalainen Gabord Competition 1m22.248s
Ander Vilariño Epsilon Euskadi 1m22.338s
Angel Burgueño Repsol RFS Vergani 1m22.452s
Stephane Sarrazin Racing Engineering 1m22.473s