Photo: Fotospeedy
Jose Garfias was fastest in Euroformula pre-event testing at Monza, as Motopark made two changes to its line-up.
The team has continued with six cars for the final round of the season, with champion Brad Benavides (confirmed by the championship on Wednesday after a error in the application of the regulations not spotted until September) and Fernando Barrichello making it to Monza as the German outfit’s only two full-time drivers.
Levente Revesz contested the first six rounds before being replaced by Vladislav Ryabov, who surprised by winning on his racing return at Barcelona last time out and secured the seat for another Euroformula outing.
Budget issues meant Jakob Bergmeister dropped out of his seat after five rounds and was replaced by Edward Pearson for the next two, but is now back in action, while Garfias continues in Motopark’s fifth regular entry after joining the team two rounds ago.
The addition sixth car, entered this weekend as a non-secoring entry, is being driven by Yevan David.
The 17-year-old Sri Lankan is a single-seater rookie and came 26th in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates at the start of this year. He is currently 19th in Spanish F4 with one round to go, having scored 12 points. In both series he has driven for Sainteloc Racing.
Euroformula’s nine-car grid for Monza is completed by the guesting all-Czech combination of STK Melnik and its driver (and managing director) Roman Roubicek. He was due to debut at the Red Bull Ring round but withdrew, and drove his HWA-powered Dallara 320 to ninth in the Austrian Formula 3 Cup this year.
The first test session on Thursday was wet and only three drivers left the pits. Garfias set a 1m54.254s to lead BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi by 0.382 seconds, and Roubicek was 6.164s off the pace.
All but NV Racing’s Paolo Brajnik contested session two, and laptimes were considerably slower as the track remained wet. A 2m00.108s from Benavides put him on top of the timesheet, 0.616s ahead of Garfias.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Garfias | Motopark | 1m54.254s | 24 | |
| 2 | Francesco Simonazzi | BVM Racing | 1m54.636s | +0.382s | 29 |
| 3 | Brad Benavides | Motopark | 2m00.108s | +5.854s | 16 |
| 4 | Roman Roubicek | STK Melnik | 2m00.418s | +6.164s | 32 |
| 5 | Fernando Barrichello | Motopark | 2m01.337s | +7.083s | 13 |
| 6 | Vladislav Ryabov | Motopark | 2m02.099s | +7.845s | 6 |
| 7 | Jakob Bergmeister | Motopark | 2m02.295s | +8.041s | 6 |
| 8 | Yevan David | Motopark | 2m02.359s | +8.105s | 6 |