Formula V8 3.5

Monza: Thursday collective test report

Aleshin strikes again Consistently one of the quickest drivers during pre-season collective testing, the Russian Mikhail Aleshin recorded the day's best time at the Monza circuit. The Carlin Motorsport driver finished ahead of Malaysian driver ...

Published: Apr 13, 2007, 3:47 PM

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Aleshin strikes again

Consistently one of the quickest drivers during pre-season collective testing, the Russian Mikhail Aleshin recorded the day's best time at the Monza circuit. The Carlin Motorsport driver finished ahead of Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy (Cram Competition), who was quickest in the morning session.

With over seven hours on the track, the thirty World Series Formula Renault 3.5 drivers had plenty of time to adjust their single-seater's setup to the specific features of the Monza track. Several track incidents -- some caused by punctures -- were littered throughout the day: Alvaro Barba (Draco Racing), Alejandro NuÃ±ez (Red Devil Comtec), Bertrand Baguette and Guillaume Moreau (both KTR), Charlie Kimball (Victory Engineering) and Ricardo Risatti (GD Racing) all gave their mechanics extra work to do. Confirmed at the start of the week by Cristiano Giardina, the Argentinean Risatti is the last to join the WSR line-up.

The quickest man on the track this morning was Fairuz Fauzy. Thanks to the good advice of engineer Rolly Vincini, the Malaysian driver continues to make sustained progress up the WSR rankings. After finishing in the top ten at the Nurburgring, the Cram Competition driver -- who is also a test driver for Spyker F1 -- looks ready to play a leading role in this year's championship. With the second best time of the day, he is not however getting carried away: "It's a good result, very much in keeping with what we achieved in Barcelona and at the Nurburgring. The car was very consistent today and we didn't have any problems. For me, the key factor will be consistency. The championship is very long and will not be decided over the course of one race."

Once again the quickest time went to Mikhail Aleshin. With a time of 1'35''984, the Carlin Motorsport driver eclipsed the lap record set by Felix Porteiro in 2005: "The mechanics had a lot of work to do today due to a gearbox problem which was not immediately spotted. I was lucky with the red flags because they weren't being shown when I did my run with new tyres. I hope to do well this weekend, but we were only testing today."

Third quickest, Alvaro Parente (Tech 1 Racing) performed consistently well throughout the day: "The track was quicker in the last half hour because the air temperature dropped. We decided against putting on an additional set of new tyres. It has been a very positive day for us. We will try to produce a repeat performance tomorrow and particularly for qualifying on Saturday."

The day's top Italian driver, Marco Bonanomi (RC Motorsport) was not satisfied with his fourth best time: "I made two major mistakes which meant I didn't get the most out of my new sets of tyres. I'm therefore a little disappointed. Having said that, we found the right setup and I think that we are on course to do well during the rest of the weekend. I would like to do even better for my home meeting."

The top 5 was completed by the other RC Motorsport car. Clivio Piccione, whose single-seater sports a brand new red and while decal kit resembling the Monaco flag, was happy to be up with the leaders: "We put in a lot of work on the setup but only put on one set of new tyres. That leaves us room for manoeuvre for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend. I'm here to win and so far, everything is going according to plan."

The drivers will only have one 45-minute session tomorrow. The short session will be the chance for them to check their car's performance in conditions close to those they can expect in qualifying.

-credit: wsrenault

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