Aurélien Panis led the way on the opening day of the Formula V8 3.5 Series pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday.
The Frenchman set the pace in both the morning and afternoon sessions, with the Arden Motorsport setting his best time of the day of 1m30.835s during the morning’s running.
Tom Dillmann was second quickest during the morning, almost half a second down for AVF, while Emil Bernstorff, testing with Strakka Racing with one eye on securing one of the two available seats within the team was third, 0.847s down on Panis.
Bernstorff was responsible for one of the two red flag periods during the session when he stopped on track, with Johnny Cecotto Jr responsible for the second, with the Venezuelan testing for RP Motorsport.
Pietro Fittipaldi of Fortec Motorsports was fourth ahead of the season AVF of Alfonso Celis Jr, while the second Fortec of Louis Deletraz ended the session in sixth, with Beitske Visser (Strakka), Matthieu Vaxiviere (SMP Racing), Rene Binder (Lotus) and Egor Orudzhev (Arden) completed the top ten.
Panis once again led the way in the afternoon with a lap time of 1m31.156s, with Binder denying Arden a 1-2 with second place ahead of Orudzhev, while Vaxiviere and Fittipaldi were fourth and fifth.
Roy Nissany placed sixth for Lotus ahead of Deletraz and Bernstorff, while Teo Martin Motorsport duo Matevos Isaakyan and Yu Kanamaru completed the top ten.
Gentleman driver Giuseppe Cipriani took to the track for Durango Racing Team for the first time but was over seven seconds off the ultimate pace, while Cecotto’s morning issue saw him miss the afternoon session.
Circuit de Catalunya Test Day 1 Morning Times
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Circuit de Catalunya Test Day 1 Afternoon Times
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