ISR's Daniel Ricciardo has stated his position loud and clear - the Australian driver needs a perfect weekend at Monza to kick start his season in Formula Renault 3.5 Series.
Ricciardo certainly started as he would have wanted, producing the fastest lap time in collective testing, ahead of Alexander Rossi (Fortec Motorsport) and Brendon Hartley (Gravity-Charouz). Jean-Eric Vergne (Carlin) had been the pace setter in the morning, before a minor fire incident put an end to the session.
The third meeting of the year for the Formula Renault 3.5 Series began at Monza today under blue skies with two sessions of collective testing. Filip Salaquarda, twice pole-man last season, joined the ranks of Pons Racing for the occasion. The first session saw all teams studiously engaged, with the drivers putting in lap after lap to find their marks on this fast track and work the set-ups. Daniil Move (P1 Motorsport), Albert Costa (Epic Racing) and Robert Wickens (Carlin) took turns at the top of the timesheets during the first part of the meeting.
When the pace upped, Jean-Eric Vergne took command, recording a lap time of 1'38''159, ahead of Nathanaël Berthon (ISR) and Brendon Hartley, just before the red flag came out and the session was interrupted. A fire had broken out in the vicinity of the circuit, and the cars had to go into the pits to allow the firefighters to intervene.
This put a definitive end to session 1, so Jean-Eric Vergne went into the afternoon with the provisional best time, followed by Nathanaël Berthon, Brendon Hartley, Alexander Rossi and Kevin Korjus (Tech 1 Racing). At the green light, all the drivers got out on track without delay for the second session.
On home turf, Italian Daniel Zampieri (BVM Target) got on the pace and slowly closed on Jean-Eric Vergne's reference time from the morning. Stéphane Richelmi (International Draco Racing) edged even closer, producing a lap time of 1'38''198, then going under in 1'38''003. Richelmi was soon to be knocked off the top of the timing screens by Robert Wickens, in 1'37''692.
The championship leader's turn at the top was also short-lived, as both Alexander Rossi and Daniel Ricciardo improved. The Red Bull Racing Formula One team reserve driver finally ended the collective test in first, ahead of Alexander Rossi and Brendon Hartley. With a dozen cars in the same second in each of the two sessions, tomorrow's qualifying promises to be a close run affair.
Quotes
Daniel Ricciardo: "This morning I drove on old tyres only, so I wasn't focusing on sheer performance, but we did what we had to do. With the new tyres, we were very effective this afternoon. One tenth is not a big gap. I drove here in the Formula Renault 2.0 Italian championship a few years ago. It's not a very difficult circuit to learn, but whittling down the last few tenths is another matter. I don't have a lot of choice, I need big of points this weekend."
Alexander Rossi: "It's a circuit I know pretty well and I like it. At Spa-Francorchamps, there was something really not right with the car. We've worked out what it was and corrected the problem. Here you really have to work hard to find the optimum set-up. It will be a very interesting weekend."
Brendon Hartley: "We've done some very good work. We were a little worried coming to Monza because the other teams ran out here this winter, but not us. However, we found an effective set-up straight away. I like driving a car with not too much downforce, so this type of track suits me perfectly. I hope this will be my weekend!"
