Roberto Mehri has topped the timesheets for the Prema Powerteam on the second day of 2011’s Formula 3 Euroseries pre-season testing in Valencia. Drier conditions on the second day granted the teams clearer running than the day before, where rain hampered most of their progress.
Despite a clutch problem in the afternoon forcing him to watch the remainder of the session from the pitwall, Merhi’s time set in the early-afternoon was quick enough to remain untouched for the rest of the session. Kimiya Sato lay only a tenth behind the Spaniard, with Mücke Motorsport’s Nigel Melker a further tenth behind Sato.
Sato was pleased with his result: “My team [Motopark Academy]did a great job: they provided me with all the information I needed to go fast.”
Dutchman Nigel Melker was merely content with third place: “There certainly are several areas where I can improve but it was okay for the time being.”
The chasing cars in the top ten were Signature’s Carlos Muñoz closely followed by Sato’s team-mate Gianmarco Raimondo. Marco Wittman (Signature) and Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport) came 6th and 7th respectively. Rounding out the top ten was Merhi’s team-mate Daniel Juncadella, who was also hindered by some technical issues later in the day. The fastest man on day 1 of testing, Signature’s Laurens Vanthoor was 9th in his Dallara-Volkswagen ahead of Motorpark Academy’s Jimmy Eriksson.
Pre-season testing resumes on 19-20 March at the Circuit de Catalyuna in Barcelona ahead of the opening rounds at Paul Ricard on 1-3 April.
Full timings can be found here: http://www.f3euroseries.com/ergebnisse/2011-03-15-tc.pdf
