International Draco Racing’s Pietro Fantin finished fastest on the final day of pre-season testing for the Formula Renault 3.5 series. The Brazilian driver set the fastest time of 1:25.945s during the morning session, where all drivers set their best times. The afternoon session was generally used for longer high-fuel runs.
“I’m thrilled to finish the tests like this because we didn’t make a very good start,” admitted Fantin on the official WSR website. “On Monday, we had a lot of understeer before making good progress yesterday. The changes we made helped us to get back to our true level. Once we had done that, I was able to up my pace and use the new tyres more effectively.”
Russian Sergey Sirotkin finished second fastest for Fortec Motorsports, just ahead of Red Bull junior driver Pierre Gasly of Arden Motorsport. Tech 1 Racing’s sole runner of the day Marco Sorensen ended up fourth fastest, just ahead of another Russian in the form of Comtec Racing’s Nikolay Martsenko.
Spaniard Roberto Merhi ran 50 laps during the day to end up sixth fastest for Zeta Corse, as he continued to re-acclimatise himself to single-seaters having raced in the DTM series for the past two seasons. Merhi is hoping to impress to gain a foothold in the series so to regain momentum in his quest to be the next Spanish F1 star.
Seventh fastest was Marlon Stockinger in his Lotus, just ahead of day two pacesetter Oliver Rowland in the second Fortec car, while another of the championship favourites Carlos Sainz Jr, the second Red Bull junior driver in the field, finished ninth in his DAMS machine. Malaysian driver Jazeman Jaafar, fastest on the first day on Monday, ended the final day tenth quickest in his ISR car.
The season begins 12th-13th April at the legendary Monza circuit in Italy.
Jerez Day 3 Pre-season Test Times
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Pietro Fantin | BRZ | International Draco Racing | 1:25.945 |
| 2 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsport | 1:26.006 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | 1:26.017 |
| 4 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | Tech 1 Racing | 1:26.031 |
| 5 | Nikolay Martsenko | RUS | Comtec Racing | 1:26.129 |
| 6 | Roberto Merhi | ESP | Zeta Corse | 1:26.163 |
| 7 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | 1:26.185 |
| 8 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | 1:26.189 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jr | ESP | DAMS | 1:26.201 |
| 10 | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR | 1:26.219 |
| 11 | Norman Nato | FRA | DAMS | 1:26.223 |
| 12 | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | 1:26.272 |
| 13 | Matias Lainé | FIN | Strakka Racing | 1:26.313 |
| 14 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | FRA | Lotus | 1:26.401 |
| 15 | Meindert van Buuren | NED | Pons Racing | 1:26.410 |
| 16 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | 1:26.416 |
| 17 | Tio Ellinas | CYP | Pons Racing | 1:26.526 |
| 18 | William Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsport | 1:26.755 |
| 19 | Beitske Visser | NED | AVF | 1:26.982 |
| 20 | Zoel Amberg | SWI | AVF | 1:27.545 |
| 21 | Roman Mavlanov | RUS | Zeta Corse | 1:27.618 |
