A typical Italian weather, with blue skies and a very warm sun, welcomed Zeta Corse in Monza. On the Italian track, that is playing host to Round 1 of the 2014 F.Renault 3.5 season, the Russian team completed two very positive Free Practice sessions, posting good laptimes with both Roberto Merhi and Roman Mavlanov and collecting useful data thanks to a thorough setup work. On an improving trend throughout the pre-season testing, today Russian talent Mavlanov confirmed that his confidence with the WSR car is reaching new highs: in the morning, when his engineers decided to focus on the single-lap pace, Roman posted a 1’35″404 on new tyres that was worth P11, his best placement ever in a F.Renault 3.5 session. Then, in the afternoon, he focused on long runs in race trim, completing a total of 36 laps.
On the team’s other car, Spaniard Roberto Merhi opted for a different approach. He lapped on very old tyres in the afternoon to test some setup solutions aimed at reducing tyre wear, and then he went for quicker runs in the afternoon. His best lap brought him in P15 in Session 2, but given Roberto’s talent there surely a lot of room for improvement.
Roman Mavlanov: S1 – P11; S2 – P20
“I’m really happy with my performance today. Monza isn’t an heavy track from a physical standpoint, and probably that’s one of the reasons why I felt more at ease with the car today. The morning session was really good, I could definitely make the most of the extra grip guaranteed by new rubber and got very close to the top ten. In the afternoon we focused on the race pace. It’s a less exciting task, but I’m sure it will prove useful tomorrow”.
Roberto Merhi: S1 – P19; S2 – P15
“Free Practice isn’t about laptimes, and keeping that in mind we focused on a different kind of work today. In the morning we focused on tyres a lot, while in the afternoon we upped our pace a bit but still without looking for a perfect flyer. For that we’ll have tomorrow’s qualifying, and I’m confident we’ll have the pace to perform well”.