MW Arden were the team to beat in the second and final GP3 Series post-season test at Estoril this week, with drivers David Fumanelli and Daniil Kvyat putting the team on top.
Red Bull Junior driver Kvyat was impressively fastest on Tuesday on his first day in the GP3 car. Having narrowly missed out to series regular Tio Ellinas in the morning session, Kvyat turned the tables on the Marussia Manor Racing driver in the afternoon to finish the day in P1.
Lewis Williamson posted the third fastest time on the opening day as he lined up with Atech CRS GP, the same team with whom he had set the pace on his GP3 test debut two years ago.
Fumanelli was fourth quickest ahead of Robert Visoiu, who had switched to MW Arden for this test after appearing with rival outfit Lotus GP in Jerez two weeks ago. British F3 champion Jack Harvey was sixth for Carlin ahead of Marussia Manor debutant Adderley Fong and another Carlin man, Eric Lichtenstein. Alex Brundle made an appearance with Lotus and was ninth fastest on the opening day courtesy of his morning time, with Giovanni Venturini tenth having this time turned out for Status Grand Prix.
Fumanelli was fastest in both sessions on the Wednesday, which took place in contrasting conditions. His morning time of 1m30.261s was the best of the test and a circuit record for GP3, with Kvyat second and Ellinas third. Williamson was again towards the front in fourth ahead of Visoiu, Lichtenstein and Harvey, who was now back with Lotus again. Miki Weckstrom, Alex Fontana and Fong completed the top ten.
Ellinas and Kvyat again completed the top three behind Fumanelli in the wet afternoon session, with the fastest time nearly 13 seconds adrift of that from the morning. Venturini, Williamson, Lichtenstein, Mario Marasca, Harvey, Fong and Fontana completed the top ten.
The test was the last action for the first generation GP3 car, with the teams due to run the new cars for the first time when pre-season testing commences ahead of the 2013 season.
