Schothorst and De Vries lead the pack at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Renault Sport/DPPI

Steijn Schothorst and Nyck De Vries were the two drivers fastest in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively on day one of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 test at the Red Bull Ring.

The timesheets suggest a highly competitive field as in the morning session the top 16 drivers were within a second of each other while in the afternoon it was the top 20 covered by the same margin.

The morning session came to a premature end when ART Junior driver Andrea Pizzitola crashed ten minutes from the time, bringing out the red flag.

In that session Schothorst was followed by Mclaren young driver and pace setter in the afternoon, Nyck De Vries, while Formula Abarth graduate Bruno Bonifacio ended in third, continuing to perform well in pre-season testing.

Guilherme Silva joined De Vries as the second Koiranen GP car in the top five with ART pair of Pizzitola and Esteban Ocon finishing with the fifth and sixth fastest times.

Oscar Tunjo continued to show consistent pre-season pace in seventh with Benjamin Bailly, Victor Franzoni and Pierre Gasly rounding off the top ten.

In the afternoon session it was the turn of De Vries to head the timesheet with a lap three tenths faster than Schothorst?s that morning.

Frenchman William Vermont and Britain?s Jake Dennis set the second and third fastest times with Gasly, Ocon, Schothorst and Bonifacio all returning to the top ten once more.

Russian driver Egor Orudzhev set the seventh quickest time for Tech 1 and in ninth was last season?s third place championship finisher Oliver Rowland, while Ignazio D?Agosto was tenth.

The drivers will return to the track tomorrow for the final time before the first race event of the season in just under two weeks at Motorland.

Morning session

Afternoon session