Adrian Quaife-Hobbs couldn’t hope for a better start of the Valencia Auto GP weekend. The Championship leader topped the timesheets of the Thursday afternoon testing, after three-hours that saw him leading for nearly the whole session. The brit lapped the Spanish track with a best time of 1’23”867 that allowed him to be nearly two tenths quicker than Sergey Sirotkin: the Russian youngster proved again how quick he can be, but at the end of the test he wasn’t too happy about his performance: “I did my best time with used tyres and no Overboost, which means that I didn’t make the most of new rubber and extra power when I had them available. Anyway it’s fine, it’s not Qualifying”. Sirotkin preceeded SuperNova’s other entry, the #11 driven by Victor Guerin: the Brazilian was a challenger for the top spot throughout the whole session and ended with a 1’24”096 that was just two tenths shy of the best lap.
Home team Campos Racing boasted a good performance with Facu Regalia in 4th place with a 1’24”298, followed by Max Snegirev with a 1’24”757. Snegirev ended ahead of newcomer Sten Pentus, who really enjoyed his first Auto GP outing with Virtuosi UK: “The car is fantastic to drive, you can play so much with it! No matter how much oversteer you have, you can always recover and if you learn to do that to your advantage it’s great fun on a track like this. I’m pretty happy with this session, especially considering that there is still a lot I have to learn, especially in understanding the tyres and the brakes. I just have to keep pushing”.
Pentus ended ahead of the other championship leader, Pål Varhaug: the Norwegian was hampered by some issues with his Overboost system, and ended the session with a 1’24”846. Varhaug was followed by newcomer Yann Cunha, who was pretty satisfied with his session: “There is really a lot of power, and some times it’s really hard to avoid wheelspin. The car also moves a lot, maybe also because the tyre sidewall is a bit higher compared to what I’m used to. Anyway I really liked it, I just need some time to get acquainted to it and I’ll be ok. Behind Cunha, Daniel de Jong and Sergio Campana closed the top ten.Valencia, Official Test, 29 March 20121 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Super Nova International 1:23.867 2 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing 1:24.042 3 Victor GUERIN Super Nova International 1:24.096 4 Facundo REGALIA Campos Racing 1:24.298 5 Max SNEGIREV Campos Racing 1:24.757 6 Sten PENTUS Virtuosi UK 1:24.829 7 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK 1:24.846 8 Yann CUNHA Ombra Racing 1:25.144 9 Daniel DE JONG Manor MP Motorsport 1:25.180 10 Sergio CAMPANA MLR 71 1:25.222 11 Antonio SPAVONE Euronova Racing 1:25.497 12 Giancarlo SERENELLI Ombra Racing 1:25.511 13 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Campos Racing 1:25.599 14 Matteo BERETTA Zele Racing 1:26.551 15 Michele LA ROSA MLR 71 1:27.607 16 Peter MILAVEC Zele Racing 1:32.761
