Montagny heads Dallara Nissan test

The Frenchman topped a list of familiar names, as some of European racing's best young drivers sampled the 415bhp Dallara-built single-seaters. Montagny was quickest in all three sessions with Racing Engineering, the team he will compete with in the inaugural championship this year.

"It is a new team and we have to get to know each other," he said. "[Former DAMS engineer] Eric Bouliet has joined the team because of me, but I haven't worked with him, so there's a lot of stuff to develop and study. Today we were just making some tests on the car, so I didn't expect to be that quick."

Fellow ex-Formula 3000 racer Bas Leinders proved to be best of the rest. The Belgian was driving for Team KTR, Kurt Mollekens' outfit which has quit F3000 in favour of Dallara Nissan this year.

Former Grand Prix driver Ricardo Zonta, who signed up for the series last week, was third fastest, ahead of Indian ace Narain Karthekeyan.

Reigning Formula 3000 champion Justin Wilson got his first run in the new car on Saturday, setting the sixth best time of the day. Fellow Brit and 1999 British F3 champion Marc Hynes also drove as he took the first steps towards relaunching his career.

See AUTOSPORT magazine on Thursday for more news from Dallara Nissan.

Franck Montagny Racing Engineering 1m23.509s
Bas Leinders KTR 1m23.722s
Ricardo Zonta Gabord Competicion 1m23.794s
Narain Karthekeyan RC Motorsport 1m23.881s
Felix Porteiro Vergani Racing 1m24.006s
Antonio Garcia Adrian Campos Motorsport 1m24.099s
Andre Couto Vergani Racing 1m24.123s
Nicolas Filiberti Zele Motorsport 1m24.556s
Polo Vilaamil Adrian Campos Motorsport 1m25.163s
Luciano Gomide GD Racing 1m25.437s