The first collective test of the 2017 World Series Formula V8 3.5 championship got underway at Motorland Aragon on Wednesday, and it was Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi who set the pace.
The grandson of two-time Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi set a time of 1:41.226 during the afternoon session for his new team Lotus to beat the morning’s best time set by Diego Menchaca and Fortec Motorsports.
Menchaca, who is set to make the jump into Formula V8 3.5 in 2017 after two seasons in EuroFormula Open, set a time of 1:41.496 in a Fortec 1-2 ahead of fellow Mexican Alfonso Celis Jr, while Egor Orudzhev placed third for the renamed SMP Racing by AVF outfit, just ahead of Roy Nissany, who joined the test with RP Motorsport.
Fittipaldi was fifth fastest in the morning ahead of Matevos Isaakyan of AVF and Yu Kanamaru of RP Motorsport and Rene Binder of Lotus, while Barone Rampante duo Damiano Fioravanti and Giuseppe Cipriani rounded out the top ten despite both causing red flags by stopping on track.
Fittipaldi jumped to the head of the field in the afternoon ahead of both Menchaca and Celis Jr, with Isaakyan fourth ahead of Nissany, Kanamaru, Orudzhev, Binder, Fioravanti and Teo Martin Motorsport’s Konstantin Tereschenko.
Canadian racer Nelson Mason was set to run the second Teo Martin Motorsport machine, but completed just one lap across the two sessions.
Diego Menchaca was quickest during the morning session and second overall on Wednesday – Credit: Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency
Motorland Aragon Test 1 Day 1 AM Times
[table id=1801 /]
Motorland Aragon Test 1 Day 1 PM Times
[table id=1802 /]
