24 avril 2015
Isaakyan and Delétraz lead the collective tests at Motorland
After six days of collective tests during the off-season, the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 kicked off the 2015 World Series by Renault season at the Motorland Aragón circuit this Friday. Matevos Isaakyan put his team JD Motorsport, which is back full-time this year in the category, on top. The Russian driver was fastest in the morning with a time of 1:55.895 ahead of Louis Delétraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing), who was quickest in the afternoon. Defending Formula Renault 1.6 NEC Junior Champion, Anton De Pasquale (Koiranen GP), was the top rookie of the day with third best time.
Isaakyan takes the lead
Under the Alcañiz sun, Anton De Pasquale exchanged best time with Matthew Graham (AVF) early in the morning. Anthoine Hubert (Tech 1 Racing), Simon Gachet (Tech 1 Racing), Ignazio D’Agosto (Manor MP Motorsport), Martin Kodrić (Fortec Motorsports), Kevin Jörg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Louis Delétraz all spent time at the top of the time sheet.
With 13-minutes left, Matevos Isaakyan clocked the fastest lap. In the final minutes the SMP Racing protégé improved to 1:55.895 to end the session ahead of Louis Delétraz and Anton De Pasquale, top rookie. Kevin Jörg and Anthoine Hubert completed the top five.
Delétraz consistently up front
In the afternoon, Jake Hughes (Koiranen GP) set the early pace before Matevos Isaakyan and Dennis Olsen (Manor MP Motorsport) traded the top spot several times. Louis Delétraz put an end to the duel and led for 20 minutes.
Jake Hughes and his team mate Jack Aitken (Koiranen GP) launched the final sprint with Ben Barnicoat (Fortec Motorsports) and Louis Delétraz in the mix. With a lap of 1:55.929, the Swiss driver finishing with best time ahead of Ben Barnicoat and Dennis Olsen, while not managing to better the morning reference time of Matevos Isaakyan.
Quotes
Matevos Isaakyan : “This morning, I put in the best lap. I ran into traffic with my new tyres, but I still was able to do a good lap. In the second session, we focused on race simulation, while remaining among the leaders. Everything is going according to plan and I look forward to the race !”
Louis Delétraz : “We used only one set of new tyres this morning and I did a good job in putting in the second best time. This afternoon, in using the set, it worked tremendously ! We have a small margin, we are consistent and it has to continue like tomorrow. »
Anton De Pasquale : “It was a rather positive day ! We used all our new tyres in the morning before putting in a race simulation. Despite the time set this afternoon, I think we’ve made progress and our package is competitive. We’ll see where it takes us tomorrow morning !”
