Home News Gasly ends final Aragon test session on top with late flyer

Gasly ends final Aragon test session on top with late flyer

by Peter Allen
Photo: GEPA pictures / Dutch Photo Agency / Sebastiaan Rozendaal

Photo: GEPA pictures / Dutch Photo Agency / Sebastiaan Rozendaal

Pierre Gasly rounded off his promising performance in the Formula Renault 3.5 pre-season test at Motorland Aragon with the fastest time in the final session after a last-minute fight for top spot.

The final afternoon began with a wet track, but times improved rapidly as the circuit dried during the session. Morning pace-setter Sergey Sirotkin sat in first place with a few minutes, but having already returned to the pits, he was shuffled down to fifth place after the chequered flag.

Gasly – who sat out much of the damp early running – improved with his final effort to post a 1m39.013s and finish up on top. Pietro Fantin also improved on his last lap, but the Draco driver finished 0.033s slower than Arden man Gasly. The Brazilian did however keep up his record of finishing all six sessions this week inside the top six.

Late flyers from Nigel Melker and Will Stevens brought the regular 2013 podium finishers up into third and fourth with Tech 1 and Strakka respectively.

Oliver Rowland was just 0.002s slower than his Fortec team-mate Sirotkin in sixth place, ahead of the second Draco and Arden cars of Luca Ghiotto and William Buller. The top ten was completed by Wednesday leader Carlos Sainz (DAMS) and Lotus driver Matthieu Vaxiviere.

The second and final pre-season test takes place at Jerez on 24-26 March.

Session results
Pos. Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Pierre Gasly Arden Motorsport 1:39.013 23
2 Pietro Fantin International Draco Racing 1:39.046 0.033 37
3 Nigel Melker Tech 1 Racing 1:39.397 0.384 35
4 Will Stevens Strakka Racing 1:39.423 0.410 38
5 Sergey Sirotkin Fortec Motorsports 1:39.454 0.441 19
6 Oliver Rowland Fortec Motorsports 1:39.456 0.443 31
7 Luca Ghiotto International Draco Racing 1:39.458 0.445 33
8 William Buller Arden Motorsport 1:39.481 0.468 42
9 Carlos Sainz DAMS 1:39.543 0.530 36
10 Matthieu Vaxiviere Lotus 1:39.656 0.643 29
11 Tom Dillmann Pons Racing 1:40.026 1.013 46
12 Roberto Merhi Zeta Corse 1:40.040 1.027 38
13 Marco Sorensen Tech 1 Racing 1:40.053 1.040 27
14 Zoel Amberg AVF 1:40.165 1.152 33
15 Norman Nato DAMS 1:40.503 1.490 33
16 Matias Laine Strakka Racing 1:40.510 1.497 21
17 Meindert van Buuren Pons Racing 1:40.519 1.506 47
18 Roman Mavlanov Zeta Corse 1:40.596 1.583 27
19 Jazeman Jaafar ISR 1:40.641 1.628 21
20 Marlon Stockinger Lotus 1:40.705 1.692 31
21 Nikolay Martsenko Comtec Racing 1:40.708 1.695 24
22 Liam Venter Comtec Racing 1:41.473 2.460 41
23 Beitske Visser AVF 1:41.606 2.593 48