Kanamaru leads rookie Rovera in Friday practice at Paul Ricard

Photo: Euroformula Open

Japanese racer Yu Kanamaru maintained his pace from the EF Open Winter Series opener at Jerez to take an early lead in the second round at Paul Ricard.

Kanamaru recorded the overall quickest time of the day in the third out of four sessions.

Alessio Rovera, who switched from West-Tec to BVM Racing for this weekend, was the best rookie of the day, lapping just 0.017s slower than Kanamaru.

Israeli Yarin Stern was also close behind the pace-setter, while the leading drivers of 2014’s top teams RP and Campos – Andres Saravia and Henrique Baptista – completed the overall top five.

Indeed, it was Guatemalan Saravia who kicked off the day with a dominant first place in the morning, beating the rest of the field by more than eight tenths. Kanamaru and Russian sophomore Konstantin Tereshchenko were the closest to Saravia, while Henrique Baptista and Damiano Fioravanti rounded out the top five.

Stern took over in the second session in a similarly confident manner, four tenths ahead of Henrique Baptista. Kanamaru remained in the top three with Mexican Diego Menchaca and Russian Dzhon Simonyan taking fourth and fifth respectively.

The disparity between the leader and the rest was sizeable in race three as well. Kanamaru recorded the overall fastest time of the day, with Saravia in second was at 0.65s off. Rovera, Tanart Sathienthirakul and Fioravanti completed the top five.

The final outing of the day saw Rovera take first, narrowly beating out Stern. DAV’s Leonardo Pulcini made his first top-five appearance of the day in third, while sophomore drivers Tereshchenko and Sathienthirakul finished in fourth and fifth.

The Winter Series will continue tomorrow with two further practice sessions, a qualifying and two races at 3.05 PM and 5.25 PM local time.

Testing results