25/04/07 - Magny-Cours – Collective testing – Day 1
Clivio Piccione (RC Motorsport) recorded the best time on the first day of collective testing at the Magny-Cours circuit. The morning session's quickest driver, Alvaro Parente (Tech 1 Racing), set the day's second best time.
The Nivers circuit will be the venue for the French round of the World Series by Renault on September 22-23. Ahead of what promises to be a great motorsport festival, the fifteen World Series teams had the chance to familiarize themselves with the Magny-Cours paddock during two days of collective testing.
This was the first appearance of the Formula Renault 3.5 cars on the French track. The recently resurfaced track was much to the satisfaction of the drivers due to the high level of grip. «I really like this track. The Estoril corner is pretty tricky», explained Sebastian Vettel (Carlin Motorsport). «But the two chicanes, Imola and Nürburgring, are superb. With a powerful car like this one, it really is very exciting to take them in fifth gear. If only I had a few more set of tyres available…»
This morning, championship leader Alvaro Parente did his current position justice by clocking the first session's quickest time: «There are some major changes on the car in comparison to Monza! We have switched from a setup with little downforce to a setup where the wings are really tight… We decided to put on our new set of tyres at the end of the morning to validate the work we had carried out. The track wasn't as quick as it was this afternoon, but we still managed to clock the day's second best time. I am very confident about the potential of the car.»
The RC Motorsport team dominated the afternoon session with its two drivers, Clivio Piccione and Marco Bonanomi, taking the top two spots. Despite a minor crash early on in the morning session, Piccione managed to take top spot for the first time in the World Series: «We came here with a setup which was already working very well – all we have done is fine-tune it. We did well on both used and new tyres. We just have to keep looking to squeeze the final few tenths out of the car.»
Third quickest man of the day, Marco Bonanomi drew similar conclusions: «It's been a good day for us. The car was good right from the opening laps. Unfortunately, we spent a lot of time in the garage because we only had one set of new tyres available today.»
After a disappointing weekend in Monza, the Argentinean Ricardo Rissati was all smiles again as he took the first day's fourth best time. «I didn't really feel confident in the car at Monza, because it was oversteering a lot on braking», explained the reigning Spanish F3 champion. «The team made a few changes to the setup and the car became easy to drive again. And that shows in my lap times! It is certainly true that I am short on track time in comparison to the other drivers, but we are working hard day by day to make progress.»
The day's top five was completed by par Giedo van der Garde (Victory Engineering): «It's been a good day for my 22nd birthday! I was also in the top five this morning. The car is very good on this track. I think that we had the potential to set the second best time. We'll see if we can do even better tomorrow!»
Pos Nbr Name Fastest In Diff Gap Speed 2nd time In 1 32 Alvaro PARENTE 1:25.426 24 185.89 1:25.551 23 2 4 Alvaro BARBA 1:25.974 30 0.548 0.548 184.70 1:26.188 27 3 3 Milos PAVLOVIC 1:26.060 24 0.634 0.086 184.52 1:27.077 23 4 23 Miguel MOLINA 1:26.287 35 0.861 0.227 184.03 1:26.400 34 5 11 Giedo VAN DER GARDE 1:26.399 24 0.973 0.112 183.79 1:26.490 16 6 27 Ricardo RISATTI 1:26.441 42 1.015 0.042 183.70 1:26.502 26 7 9 Clivio PICCIONE 1:26.482 16 1.056 0.041 183.62 1:26.727 15 8 8 Sebastian VETTEL 1:26.488 25 1.062 0.006 183.60 1:26.527 17 9 29 James WALKER 1:26.536 37 1.110 0.048 183.50 1:27.020 28 10 10 Marco BONANOMI 1:26.539 30 1.113 0.003 183.50 1:26.593 38 11 15 Bertrand BAGUETTE 1:26.556 37 1.130 0.017 183.46 1:26.761 18 12 14 Guillaume MOREAU 1:26.586 18 1.160 0.030 183.40 1:26.746 17 13 21 Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 1:26.618 24 1.192 0.032 183.33 1:27.134 21 14 1 Salvador DURAN 1:26.692 13 1.266 0.074 183.17 1:26.861 12 15 22 Davide VALSECCHI 1:26.712 24 1.286 0.020 183.13 1:26.826 36 16 28 Pasquale DI SABATINO 1:26.842 48 1.416 0.130 182.86 1:27.166 53 17 19 Fairuz FAUZY 1:26.887 35 1.461 0.045 182.76 1:26.961 36 18 31 Julien JOUSSE 1:26.927 25 1.501 0.040 182.68 1:26.983 27 19 5 Jaap VAN LAGEN 1:27.018 61 1.592 0.091 182.49 1:27.113 60 20 7 Michael ALESHIN 1:27.032 11 1.606 0.014 182.46 1:27.145 10 21 18 Ben HANLEY 1:27.091 49 1.665 0.059 182.33 1:27.335 30 22 12 Charlie KIMBALL 1:27.140 33 1.714 0.049 182.23 1:27.387 26 23 2 Daniil MOVE 1:27.261 28 1.835 0.121 181.98 1:27.314 32 24 24 Carlos IACONELLI 1:27.284 30 1.858 0.023 181.93 1:27.297 44 25 25 Celso MIGUEZ 1:27.314 39 1.888 0.030 181.87 1:27.352 40 26 6 Alejandro NUÑEZ 1:27.352 50 1.926 0.038 181.79 1:27.419 39 27 26 Alessandro CIOMPI 1:28.051 42 2.625 0.699 180.35 1:28.112 49 28 16 Xavier MAASSEN 1:28.074 64 2.648 0.023 180.30 1:28.308 63 29 20 Pippa MANN 1:29.274 37 3.848 1.200 177.87 1:29.409 32
Pos Nbr Name Fastest In Diff Gap Speed 1 9 Clivio PICCIONE 1:25.248 24 186.28 2 10 Marco BONANOMI 1:25.520 20 0.272 0.272 185.68 3 27 Ricardo RISATTI 1:25.602 24 0.354 0.082 185.51 4 11 Giedo VAN DER GARDE 1:25.760 11 0.512 0.158 185.16 5 32 Alvaro PARENTE 1:25.784 17 0.536 0.024 185.11 6 4 Alvaro BARBA 1:25.789 26 0.541 0.005 185.10 7 22 Davide VALSECCHI 1:25.797 26 0.549 0.008 185.08 8 19 Fairuz FAUZY 1:25.860 10 0.612 0.063 184.95 9 29 James WALKER 1:26.011 24 0.763 0.151 184.62 10 8 Sebastian VETTEL 1:26.224 24 0.976 0.213 184.17 11 7 Michael ALESHIN 1:26.307 13 1.059 0.083 183.99 12 1 Salvador DURAN 1:26.344 10 1.096 0.037 183.91 13 18 Ben HANLEY 1:26.355 22 1.107 0.011 183.89 14 23 Miguel MOLINA 1:26.460 20 1.212 0.105 183.66 15 21 Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 1:26.472 12 1.224 0.012 183.64 16 14 Guillaume MOREAU 1:26.478 13 1.230 0.006 183.63 17 24 Carlos IACONELLI 1:26.502 20 1.254 0.024 183.57 18 31 Julien JOUSSE 1:26.554 14 1.306 0.052 183.46 19 3 Milos PAVLOVIC 1:26.575 12 1.327 0.021 183.42 20 15 Bertrand BAGUETTE 1:26.593 24 1.345 0.018 183.38 21 6 Alejandro NU?EZ 1:26.771 27 1.523 0.178 183.01 22 12 Charlie KIMBALL 1:26.973 15 1.725 0.202 182.58 23 16 Xavier MAASSEN 1:27.244 30 1.996 0.271 182.01 24 2 Daniil MOVE 1:27.691 17 2.443 0.447 181.09 25 25 Celso MIGUEZ 1:27.921 19 2.673 0.230 180.61 26 26 Alessandro CIOMPI 1:27.962 12 2.714 0.041 180.53 27 20 Pippa MANN 1:28.230 26 2.982 0.268 179.98 28 28 Pasquale DI SABATINO 1:28.319 4 3.071 0.089 179.80 29 5 Jaap VAN LAGEN 1:29.412 2 4.164 1.093 177.60
