Scorpio Motorsport locked out the top two places on the timesheets during official Protyre Formula Renault Championship testing at Snetterton 200 Circuit this morning, Wednesday, 24th April, with Ivan Taranov (Oxford) heading team-mate Henrique Baptista (Eastbourne) by 0.2 seconds.Swithland-based Scorpio, title winners in 2008 and 2009, dominated the bright and dry three and a half hour session with Russian racer Taranov posting a best time of 1m11.444 seconds (99.97mph), compared to Baptistas quickest of 1m11.657 seconds (99.67mph).Continuing the sort of front-running pace which netted him a podium at Donington Park during the opening race meeting of the season earlier this month, Taranov certainly confirmed his genuine championship credentials with todays performance. For Brazilian driver Baptista, his excellent run put the difficulties of being forced to miss the opening two rounds of the season firmly behind him.Ivan was faultless today really, he was pretty much there from the start and popped in a good time on old rubber early on, explained Scorpio team principal Jon Pettitt, We sat out the session for quite a bit after that but nobody seemed to be challenging the time that much, then we went on new tyres but could have found more timewe should have found more time really.Henrique did a great job, we didnt know what to expect as hes had a tough time of it lately with misfortune in pre-season testing at Silverstone and then his engine going at Donington. He didnt put his best sectors together otherwise it could have ended the other way round with him quickest. All in all, its been a pretty good day for us and a very enjoyable test.Third fastest today was points leader Chris Middlehurst (St. Helens), the MGR Motorsport driver producing a best time of 1m11.844 seconds (99.41mph) to end the morning just under 0.2 seconds shy of Baptista but a mere 0.029 seconds ahead of Jamun Racings Diego Menchaca (Bedford).Fifth quickest was Menchacas Mexican compatriot, and fellow member of the Escuderia Telmex programme, Jorge Cevallos (Northampton) for MGR with Jamuns 16-year-old Pietro Fittipaldigrandson of two-time FIA Formula One World Champion Emersonimpressing in sixth place.MTECH Lites Lebanese racer Joe Ghanem, Fortec Motorsports Chinese driver Hong Wei Cao and MGRs Tom Oliphant (Tarporley, Cheshire) rounded out the top nine. So evenly matched were the performances behind the pace-setting Scorpio cars, only 0.272 seconds covered Middlehurst in third to Oliphant in ninth.Hong Kongs Wei Fung Thong (Liverpool) ended the session 10th fastest for Fortec, just 0.043 seconds ahead of Protyre Formula Renault newcomer Jesse Anttila who delivered a strong showing on his maiden outing in an FR 2.0 car with the returning Cliff Dempsey Racing squad.The Finnish 18-year-old, who is planning to make his race debut in the championship during the next three rounds of the season at Snetterton, ended the day within a second of the outright pace. Core Motorsports Piers Hickin (Knaphill), who will make his debut at the next event, was 13th quickest.Im quite happy with how Jesse went today, hes never driven slicks and wings before and was up against guys with two or three years experience, said CDR team principal Cliff Dempsey, Hes almost had a year out from racing actually, he did a little bit of Duratec [Formula Ford] back home in Finland but other than that nothing and hes missed all of testing so hes playing catch-up.
The plan is to be out for the next round at Snetterton, I love Protyre Formula Renault and ideally wed like to be back with two carswere working on trying to make that happen. These are still the best cars ever made, I dont understand why some people say its an old car as you can still go out and buy a brand new one if you wanted to!Snetterton 200 Circuit will host rounds three, four and five of the 2013 Protyre Formula Renault Championship on 11th/12th May.Along with headline sponsor Protyre, Formula Renault is additionally supported by Michelin, The Lubricant Consultancy, Petronas Syntium and NGK Spark Plugs.
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