Zeta Corse successfully tamed some truly variable weather today at the Hungaroring, in the free practice day for Round 7 of the 2014 World Series by Renault 3.5. The venue close to Budapest was soaked by rain early in the morning, providing drivers with some challenging conditions, but the forecast improved as the day went on and the teams were able to switch to slick tires at the end of the second session.
Spaniard Roberto Merhi was once again a stable presence among the frontrunners. The 23-year-old racer from Castellón took sixth place in Practice 1, showcasing his control skills once again one week after making his Formula 1 debut with Caterhamat Monza. In the afternoon, the small time window on dry tires meant lots of traffic and little chances to put together a perfect laptime in ideal conditions. Mehri did his best, rounding out the top-10 but also showing good potential for Qualifying and Race 1.
Russian racer Roman Mavlanov also showed speed and consistency, scoring the 14th fastest lap of the AM practice with comfortable room for improvement. He then recovered from a spin to score 19th in Practice 2. The action will resume tomorrow, with Qualifying 1 scheduled at 10:20 AM and Race 1 starting at 14:00 local time.
Roberto Merhi – FP1: P6 – FP2: P9
“Today it went reasonably well, but you never know the real values with this weather. The conditions kept changing during both the practice sessions and only some drivers used new tires. There was also a lot of traffic which made even more difficult to understand where everybody were. It was tough to put two fast laps in succession. We know we are ok but we have to focus on doing a good job for tomorrow”.
Roman Mavlanov – FP1: P14 – FP2: P19
“The first session went really well. I ended up in 14th with a quick first sector that could have brought an even better result overall. Then in the second session I made a mistake and spun in my first lap on slick tires. The car was ok but the stewards forced me to wait for it back in the pit-lane. I eventually got on-track again but there was so much traffic to go for a consistent improvement in that conditions”.