Smooth run for the Auto GP World Series cars in the first session of the collective test
The teams gathered on the Monza circuit for the first official outing on the new Kumho Tyres, aiming to prepare their cars for the upcoming race weekend and to put both the available tyre compounds to the test.
With the track still a bit “green” in many spots and generally not providing the right grip in the early hours of the day, the teams decided to tackle the morning session with used tyres. The first sets of new Kumho rubber (the harder compound) appeared on the cars with one hour to go, but there’s a lot of room for improvement and the laptimes are expected to drop consistently in the afternoon. Preseason testing are open to any kind of predictions, if you like bets, you’ll find your fun on TopBet.com.
In those conditions it was Victor Guerin who topped the timesheet: the young Brazilian driving for SuperNova was one tenth quicker than Pål Varhaug with the Virtuosi UK entry, showing that the British newcomers already have a good pace. Good news also for MLR71, taking 3rd place with Sergio Campana and a 1’37”953.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, driving the other SuperNova car, ended the session with the fourth quickest time just over the 1’38”mark, ahead of the first Campos Racing car driven by Facundo Regalia. Sergey Sirotkin was 6th (1’38”443) ahead of Zoël Amberg (1’38”826) and Max Snegirev (1’39”012), with Giuseppe Cipriani and Giacomo Ricci closing the top ten.
source: Auto GP, autogp.org
Sirotkin on the pace in first official test
Sergey Sirotkin stunned the establishment today at Monza by finishing the first official test of the 2012 season in 2nd place, just 0.1 seconds behind MLR71 driver Sergio Campana.
Sirotkin, who is supported by the Lukoil Driver Development Programme, set his best lap of 1’36.9 in the afternoon session whilst running on hard tyres with qualifying set-up. Towards the end of the session the young Russian switched to the soft compound tyres with a full tank of fuel and recorded a best lap of 1’37.5.
Joining Euronova for the test was Italian Antonio Spavone who got his first taste of an Auto GP car. His best lap was 1’38.8 and was set in the afternoon session.
Vincenzo Sospiri: I’m very pleased with how the test went today. It is good to be competitive straightaway! Sergey gave the engineers excellent feedback and reports that the car is very well balanced. He was particularly impressive running with a race set-up and was able to set consistently quick times. Antonio did a good job today, his focus was on learning the car and understanding the tyres and he was able to improve his lap-times considerably from the morning to the afternoon session.
source: euronova-racing.com, photo: S. Santarelli