Auto GP

Rookie DeJonghe Heads Day Two of Valencia Test

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On only his second day in an Auto GP World Series car, Belgian driver Sam DeJonghe topped the timing screens at the pre-season test in Valencia.  For the second day running, the circuit’s lap record for an Auto GP car was broken, with Virtuosi UK driver DeJonghe’s time of 1:20.741s ultimately ending the day on top.

Only one other driver managed to lap the track in under 1:21s, with Super Nova driver Markus Pommer ending less than six hundredths of a second behind DeJonghe.  The German is hoping to return to single seaters in 2014 after racing in the Porsche Supercup in 2013.

Day one pacesetter Tamas Pal Kiss was third fastest on day two in his Zele Racing machine, just ahead of the second Virtuosi UK car of Andrea Roda.  Roda finished less than two hundredths of a second faster than fellow Italian Kevin Giovesi in the Puma 3 M-Sport car.

Kimiya Sato ran in the morning session before heading to Bahrain for his GP2 Series debut, and finished sixth fastest before handing the car over to countryman Yoshitaka Koruda for the afternoon session; Koruda ended up twelfth.  Seventh fastest was Canadian series rookie Gianmarco Raimondo in the second Super Nova machine, just ahead of the third of Michela Cerruti.

The top ten was rounded out by young Italian Loris Spinelli in the second Puma 3 M-Sport car and by Slovakian Richard Gonda in the third Virtuosi machine.

The Auto GP World Series season begins April 12th-13th on the streets of Marrakech in Morocco.

Valencia Day 2 Pre-Season Test Times

POS DRIVER NAT TEAM TIME
1 Sam   DeJonghe BEL Virtuosi   UK 1:20.741
2 Markus   Pommer GER Super   Nova 1:20.797
3 Tamas   Pal Kiss HUN Zele   Racing 1:21.253
4 Andrea   Roda ITA Virtuosi   UK 1:21.414
5 Kevin   Giovesi ITA Puma   3 M-Sport 1:21.432
6 Kimiya   Sato JAP MLR   71 by Euronova 1:21.581
7 Gianmarco   Raimondo CAN Super   Nova 1:21.663
8 Michela   Cerruti ITA Super   Nova 1:21.686
9 Loris   Spinelli ITA Puma   3 M-Sport 1:22.276
10 Richard   Gonda SVK Virtuosi   UK 1:22.605
11 Giuseppe   Cipriani ITA Ibiza   Racing 1:22.743
12 Yoshitaka   Koruda JAP MLR   71 by Euronova 1:23.480
13 Salvatore   de Plano ITA MLR   71 by Euronova 1:23.928
14 Michele   La Rosa ITA MLR   71 by Euronova 1:23.992
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