Adrian Quaife-Hobbs topped the sheets in yesterday’s Official Test in Portimão. The championship leader kept momentum after his dominant performance in Hungary, and stopped the clock on a 1’32”643 that bodes really well for the race weekend. In a session where all the teams focused on set-up work and the majority of the drivers had the aim of learning the track, laptimes aren’t too relevant but Quaife-Hobbs’ performance was anyway remarkable, as he was 1” clear of the whole pack. “Everything was fine – said Adrian – but I’m confident that there is more to come. I didn’t know the track so I’m sure that tomorrow I’ll manage to be quicker”.
Behind him, the fight for second place was already very tight: Pål Varhaug edged Sergey Sirotkin by less then one tenth, and Chris Van der Drift was just one tenth behind with a 1’33”943. Victor Guerin was a good 5th with 1’34”243 despite some fuel pressure issues forcing him to stop on track and around mid-session. Seventh place went to Facu Regalia, who was happy about his car: “I think that my real position would be P2, I did just one real flying lap and for the rest we focused on another kind of work”. Behind Regalia was newcomer Juan Carlos Sistos: the young Mexican boasted a very good performance with the Zele Racing #9 entry, making the most of his recent experience on the Algarve track: “I’m getting acquainted with the car lap after lap, so there is still room for improvement. The car is very different from the F3 I’m used to, but I’m already happy about the feeling I got”. Sistos was followed by Giuseppe, Cipriani, Sergio Campana and Max Snegirev, who closed the top ten.
1 – Adrian Quaife-Hobbs – Super Nova – 1'32”6432 – Pål Varhaug – Virtuosi – 1'33”7643 – Sergey Sirotkin – Euronova – 1'33”8424 – Chris Van Der Drift – Manor MP – 1'33”9435 – Victor Guerin – Super Nova – 1'34”2346 – Facu Regalia – Campos – 1'34”2607 – Juan Carlos Sistos – Zele – 1'34”2888 – Giuseppe Cipriani – Campos – 1'34”8199 – Sergio Campana – MLR 71 – 1'34”85910 – Max Snegirev – Campos – 1'35”01711 – Daniel De Jong – Manor MP – 1'35”02812 – Giancarlo Serenelli – Ombra - 1'35”130 13 – Antonio Spavone – Euronova – 1'35”43114 – Francesco Dracone – Virtuosi – 1'35”84515 – Michele La Rosa – MLR 71 – 1'37”80616 – Sten Pentus – Zele – No Time
