Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP3 Series Media Service
GP3 star Dean Stoneman posted the fastest time in the afternoon session of the first day of Formula Renault 3.5 post-season testing at Jerez.
Testing for Arden, Stoneman led much of the session with a time of 1m28.710s. That was eight tenths of a second away from Pietro Fantin‘s morning benchmark.
0.256s adrift of Stoneman in second was Oscar Tunjo, who is signed with Pons into 2015. Stoneman will line-up alongside the Colombian at Pons on Wednesday.
Luca Ghiotto was third in the Fortec car that won Sunday’s season finale in the hands of Oliver Rowland. Lotus driver Alex Fontana continued his impressive pace on his first day in an FR3.5 car with fourth.
Jordan King was fifth in the second Arden entry ahead of Formula Renault 2.0 graduates Dennis Olsen and Nyck de Vries of Strakka and DAMS respectively.
Sunday P2 finisher Nicholas Latifi was eighth for Strakka, followed by Fortec’s Egor Orudzhev and ISR tester Andrea Pizzitola.
In an addition to the entry list for Wednesday, Strakka will test Jake Hughes alongside Olsen. Hughes has raced for the team’s new FR2.0 operation in recent weeks, and tested the FR2.0 test on Monday for ART. He replaces Latifi, who is due to take Fontana’s place at Lotus. Orudzhev takes over from Stoneman at Arden, and is replcaed at Fortec by Jazeman Jaafar.
Afternoon session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Dean Stoneman | Arden International | 1:28.710 | 30 | |
| 2 | Oscar Tunjo | Pons Racing | 1:28.966 | 0.256 | 27 |
| 3 | Luca Ghiotto | Fortec Motorsports | 1:29.135 | 0.425 | 34 |
| 4 | Alex Fontana | Lotus | 1:29.181 | 0.471 | 14 |
| 5 | Jordan King | Arden International | 1:29.263 | 0.553 | 27 |
| 6 | Dennis Olsen | Strakka Racing | 1:29.368 | 0.658 | 32 |
| 7 | Nyck de Vries | DAMS | 1:29.449 | 0.739 | 30 |
| 8 | Nicholas Latifi | Strakka Racing | 1:29.537 | 0.827 | 41 |
| 9 | Egor Orudzhev | Fortec Motorsports | 1:29.776 | 1.066 | 31 |
| 10 | Andrea Pizzitola | ISR | 1:29.854 | 1.144 | 23 |
| 11 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1:29.919 | 1.209 | 14 |
| 12 | Robert Visoiu | Pons Racing | 1:30.028 | 1.318 | 28 |
| 13 | Jimmy Eriksson | DAMS | 1:30.047 | 1.337 | 30 |
| 14 | Gustav Malja | ISR | 1:30.146 | 1.436 | 23 |
| 15 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1:30.154 | 1.444 | 36 |
| 16 | Steijn Schothorst | Comtec Racing | 1:30.156 | 1.446 | 28 |
| 17 | Bruno Bonifacio | International Draco Racing | 1:30.676 | 1.966 | 25 |
| 18 | Richard Gonda | Tech 1 Racing | 1:31.169 | 2.459 | 13 |
| 19 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1:33.177 | 4.467 | 3 |