Formula V8 3.5 made its track return following the lengthy summer break at the Red Bull Ring on Friday, and it was Austrian Rene Binder that set the pace in both Collective Test sessions at his home track.
Binder, with four podium finishes to his name so far in 2016 but the leading contender in the championship without a victory, took his Lotus machine to the top of the time sheets in the morning session with a time of 1:17.596, before heading the second, faster session with a time of 1:16.954.
Egor Orudzhev, twice a winner in 2016, was second fastest in the morning session for Arden Motorsport, with Louis Deletraz third for Fortec Motorsports, with the Swiss driver having sat at the top of time sheets for a long period of time during the session.
Roy Nissany, who took a double victory last time out at Silverstone, was fourth fastest in the second Lotus, with championship leader Tom Dillmann fifth for the AVF by Adrian Vallés team ahead of SMP Racing’s Matevos Isaakyan, who missed Silverstone due to his GP3 Series commitments.
Binder returned to the top in the second session ahead of Dillmann, who was the only other driver to get beneath the 1:17 bracket, while Nissany and Deletraz were third and fourth ahead of Aurélien Panis of Arden Motorsport and SMP Racing’s Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Marco Bonanomi, making his single seater return this weekend for RP Motorsport, was fourteenth in both sessions, and improved his time from a 1:19.539 to a 1:18.364 from test one to test two.
Red Bull Ring Collective Test 1 Result
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Red Bull Ring Collective Test 2 Result
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