Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography/RSF
Oliver Rowland destroyed the Formula Renault 3.5 lap record at Motorland Aragon to finish the first day of pre-season test on top.
The Racing Steps Foundation ace posted the time with 15 minutes of the afternoon session remaining, displacing Fortec team-mate and morning pace-setter Sergey Sirotkin.
Rowland’s lap of 1m38.522s was more than 0.45 seconds faster than the previous benchmark at the Spanish venue, set by Raffaele Marciello last November.
Rowland was quickly joined inside the old record by his former Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 rival Pierre Gasly. The Arden driver, who joined the Red Bull Junior Team over the winter, was 0.344 seconds off the man he beat to the Eurocup crown last year.
Sirotkin finished up third ahead of Draco’s Pietro Fantin and ISR driver Jazeman Jaafar. Carlos Sainz was sixth for DAMS ahead of Strakka’s Matias Laine and his own team-mate Norman Nato, with Draco rookie Luca Ghiotto and Arden’s Will Buller completing the top ten for the afternoon.
Testing continues on Wednesday and Thursday.
Afternoon session times
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 1:38.522 | 25 | |
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | Arden Motorsport | 1:38.866 | 0.344 | 20 |
| 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | Fortec Motorsports | 1:39.107 | 0.585 | 21 |
| 4 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1:39.122 | 0.600 | 17 |
| 5 | Jazeman Jaafar | ISR | 1:39.316 | 0.794 | 25 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | DAMS | 1:39.366 | 0.844 | 21 |
| 7 | Matias Laine | Strakka Racing | 1:39.409 | 0.887 | 23 |
| 8 | Norman Nato | DAMS | 1:39.444 | 0.922 | 23 |
| 9 | Luca Ghiotto | International Draco Racing | 1:39.668 | 1.146 | 15 |
| 10 | William Buller | Arden Motorsport | 1:39.805 | 1.283 | 25 |
| 11 | Zoel Amberg | AVF | 1:39.901 | 1.379 | 20 |
| 12 | Marco Sorensen | Tech 1 Racing | 1:40.028 | 1.506 | 32 |
| 13 | Will Stevens | Strakka Racing | 1:40.153 | 1.631 | 25 |
| 14 | Daniil Move | Pons Racing | 1:40.252 | 1.730 | 28 |
| 15 | Marlon Stockinger | Lotus | 1:40.314 | 1.792 | 31 |
| 16 | Nikolay Martsenko | Comtec Racing | 1:40.695 | 2.173 | 15 |
| 17 | Meindert van Buuren | Pons Racing | 1:40.810 | 2.288 | 20 |
| 18 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1:40.830 | 2.308 | 20 |
| 19 | Roberto Merhi | Zeta Corse | 1:40.861 | 2.339 | 43 |
| 20 | Nigel Melker | Zeta Corse | 1:40.866 | 2.344 | 16 |
| 21 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1:41.345 | 2.823 | 25 |
| 22 | Liam Venter | Comtec Racing | 1:43.026 | 4.504 | 20 |