F.RENAULT 3.5 -HUNGARORING -SECOND PLACE FOR I.S.R. IN PRACTICE 2
I.S.R. enjoyed a promising weekend start in Budapest, where the F.Renault 3.5 championship is holding the seventh round of the championship. On the Hungaroring track, one of the most technical venues of the F1 calendar, the Czech team performed as expected on Friday and shone with Russian young talent Sergey Sirotkin, who closed the second Free Practice session in 2nd place. Free Practice 1, in the morning, saw the team focus on set-up work on very used rubber, and as a result Sirotkin and Christopher Zanella took the flag in P11 and P23 respectively.
New tyres were fitted for the afternoon session, and as the whole field improved their laptimes compared to FP1, the I.S.R. boys immediately posted some very competitive laptimes. With ten minutes to the end of the session Sergey jumped at the top of the timesheet thanks to a 1’29″185, a laptime that only Carlos Sainz Jr. managed to beat in the last minutes of the session. Zanella was enroute to a good finish too as he was improving his sector times, but the session was red flagged with 1’30 to go, forcing him to abort his best lap.
Sergey Sirotkin: FP1 – P11; FP2 – P2 ”After the long summer break I needed the first laps of FP1 to get acquainted with the car again. After that I immediately felt that the setup was working well on this track, even on very old tyres. In the afternoon, on new rubber, I did a nearly perfect lap that allowed me to close the session ahead of the quickest drivers of this championship, so I’m really satisfied. Furthermore, there’s still some room for improvement with the car, so I have a really good feeling for tomorrow”.
Christopher Zanella: FP1 – P23; FP2 – P16 ”In the morning I wasn’t quick, but I was lapping on a very old set of Michelins so I wasn’t worried at all. In FP2 we did some set-up work on new tyres and the car felt much better, and I was looking forward to the last minutes of the session to post a very quick laptime. Unfortunately the red flag came out right when I was improving my time, and I had to back off. It’s a pity, but the car feels good looking to tomorrow’s Qualifying session
