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Winkelhock
is a quick learner
 It
was in bright, sunny conditions that the drivers in the World Series
by Renault got their first taste of the Monaco circuit behind the
wheel of their Formula Renault 3.5 cars. Markus Winkelhock (Draco
Multiracing USA) recorded the best time, ahead of Robert Kubica
(Epsilon Euskadi) and Giorgio Mondini (Eurointernational).
To
get from the paddock, situated near to Portier corner, to the Pit
lane, the teams used Renault Master vans decorated in their team
colours. These vehicles have been provided by Renault Sport.
Once
the vans had driven past, it was time for the thirty Formula Renault
3.5 car to take over the Pit lane – just after the Formula
1 free practice session! The two Jordan drivers, who were both involved
in last year’s World Series, took the time to meet up with
old acquaintances. Tiago Monteiro gave some advice to Eric Salignon
(Cram Compétition), whilst Narain Karthikeyan had a closer
look at the car of his fellow countryman, Karun Chandhok.
Second
here last year in F3000, Enrico Toccacelo (Victory Engineering)
took on the role of “old hand” at the Monaco track. He
nonetheless approached this first session with caution: “You
can never be sure of anything at Monaco. With thirty cars on the
track, it is going to be difficult to manage the traffic. It will
be easier tomorrow in qualifying, as we’ll be separated into
two series.”
The
Jenzer Motorsport drivers figured well at the start of today’s
session, with Colin Fleming and Patrick Pilet putting themselves
at the top of the timing screens. Lap by lap, the favourites got
involved in the scrap: Jaap Van Lagen and Tristan Gommendy (KTR)
became the quickest on the track, in front of Robert Kubica –
who then wasted no time in setting the fastest time after the first
fifteen minutes (1’33’’162).
That
was the moment that Markus Winkelhock chose to up the tempo. The
German put in a series of quick laps, each one taking a second off
his best time. Colin Fleming and Robert Kubica were still in the
fight, but these three were outshone by Giorgio Mondini, who laid
down the gauntlet with a lap of 1’29’’012.
With
just over thirty minutes gone, all the drivers had managed to keep
their cars on the track by gradually increasing the power of their
attacks! But then Patrick Pilet, at that point in possession of
the second fastest time, crashed the rear of his car into the barrier
at Beaurivage. The stewards immediately began to remove the car
from the track, but Pastor Maldonado (DAMS), also in trouble, was
unable to avoid hitting one of the stewards.
The
appearance of the red flag brought the session to a halt, allowing
emergency services to take the steward, suffering from a hip injury,
off the track. The whole of the World Series paddock wishes him
a very speedy recovery.
The
session restarted for five minutes. As the chequered flag was about
to be waved, Markus Winkelhock and Robert Kubica recorded the two
best times, whereas Giorgio Mondini was unable to improve his time.
Now
that this first session is over, competitors now have almost two
days in which to closely analyse the data acquired in order to prepare
the cars for the qualifying sessions, which will be held on Saturday
evening starting at 6.10pm.
Free practice
Driver
ASN Team Time Gap
1 Markus Winkelhock DEU Draco Multiracing USA 1:28,732
2 Robert Kubica POL Epsilon Euskadi 1:28,853 00,121
3 Giorgio Mondini ITA Eurointernational 1:29,012 00,280
4 Patrick Pilet FRA Jenzer Motorsport 1:29,478 00,746
5 Colin Fleming USA Jenzer Motorsport 1:30,121 01,389
6 Adrian Valles ESP Pons Racing 1:30,294 01,562
7 Ryo Fukuda JPN DHG Saulnier Racing 1:30,353 01,621
8 Enrico Toccacelo ITA Victory Engineering 1:30,361 01,629
9 Damien Pasini FRA Cram Competition 1:30,547 01,815
10 Christian Montanari RSM Draco Multiracing USA 1:30,593 01,861
11 Milos Pavlovic YUG GD Racing 1:30,689 01,957
12 Simon Pagenaud FRA DHG Saulnier Racing 1:31,165 02,433
13 Will Power AUS Carlin Motorsport 1:31,172 02,440
14 Jaap Van Lagen NLD KTR 1:31,289 02,557
15 Tristan Gommendy FRA KTR 1:31,311 02,579
16 Andreas Zuber AUT Carlin Motorsport 1:31,939 03,207
17 Tomas Kostka CZE Victory Engineering 1:32,435 03,703
18 Matteo Meneghello ITA Eurointernational 1:32,505 03,773
19 Frédéric Vervisch BEL GD Racing 1:33,383 04,651
20 Pastor Maldonado VEN DAMS 1:34,084 05,352
21 Daniel La Rosa DEU Interwetten.com 1:34,394 05,662
22 Celso Miguez ESP Pons Racing 1:34,486 05,754
23 Ivan Bellarosa ITA Avelon Formula 1:34,563 05,831
24 Alex Lloyd GBR DAMS 1:34,573 05,841
25 Felix Porteiro ESP Epsilon Euskadi 1:35,829 07,097
26 Karun Chandhok IND RC Motorosport 1:36,226 07,494
27 Mehdi Bennani MAR Avelon Formula 1:39,297 10,565
28 Eric Salignon FRA Cram Competition 1:40,290 11,558
29 Giovanni Tedeschi ITA RC Motorosport 1:41,177 12,445
30 Sven Barth DEU Interwetten.com 1:44,923 16,191
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