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Mercedes junior Paul Aron tops Formula Renault Eurocup test at Spa

by Ida Wood

Photo: Clément Luck / DPPI

Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Paul Aron went fastest in Formula Renault Eurocup’s pre-event test at Spa-Francorchamps on Wednesday.

The first three-hour session was led by Aron’s ART Grand Prix team-mate Victor Martins, who often had a gap of over two seconds on the rest of the field on the timesheet in the wet conditions.

In the final half-hour of that session he bettered his own pace by several seconds, and it wasn’t until there was five minutes to go that improvments from other drivers brought them to comfortably within two seconds of Martins.

Arden’s Alex Quinn was first to do so, before MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto got within 1.595s of Martins, and Aron then used his final lap to get even closer.

MP’s Kas Haverkort, expected to be making his second Eurocup appearance this weekend, was the early pacestter in the dry second session, before Martins and then Quinn took over at the top.

Colapinto was quickest with 70 minutes to go, and remained at the top for almost half of the remaining time until Martins and Aron lowered the pace into 2m17.3s territory.

Quinn became the first driver to lap in the 2m16s in the final 15 minutes, and Aron used his last lap to take spot by 0.019s with a 2m16.950s lap.

FA Racing’s Tijmen van der Helm jumped up to third place at the end, a further 0.022s behind, with Martins shuffled down to fourth and Bhaitech’s Lorenzo Colombo showing some encouraging pace in fifth.

Martin’s main title rival Caio Collet was half a second down in seventh place, but ahead of title outsiders Colapinto and David Vidales (JD Motorsport).

Test results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Paul Aron ART Grand Prix 2m16.950s 57
2 Alex Quinn Arden 2m16.969s +0.019s 51
3 Tijmen van der Helm FA Racing by Manor 2m16.991s +0.041s 66
4 Victor Martins ART Grand Prix 2m17.076s +0.126s 43
5 Lorenzo Colombo Bhaitech 2m17.157s +0.207s 41
6 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 2m17.345s +0.395s 55
7 Caio Collet R-ace GP 2m17.465s +0.515s 71
8 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport 2m17.514s +0.564s 49
9 David Vidales JD Motorsport 2m17.600s +0.650s 78
10 William Alatalo JD Motorsport 2m17.747s +0.797s 73
11 Hadrien David MP Motorsport 2m17.751s +0.801s 49
12 Amaury Cordeel FA Racing by Manor 2m17.843s +0.893s 67
13 Kas Haverkort MP Motorsport 2m18.026s +1.076s 49
14 Ugo de Wilde Arden 2m18.512s +1.562s 47
15 Petr Ptacek R-ace GP 2m19.308s +2.358s 67
16 Reshad de Gerus Arden 2m19.352s +2.402s 60
17 Laszlo Toth Bhaitech 2m19.846s +2.896s 67
18 Nicola Marinangeli Bhaitech 2m20.069s +3.119s 41