Formula Renault 3.5 – Top ten effort for Zeta Corse

Zeta Corse blasted off to good start in the first official commitment of their 2014 campaign, Day 1 of the Alcaniz collective test. On the Spanish track, were the World Series by Renault paddock gathered after a 3-month long winter break, the Russian outfit was quick straight out of the box and posted the 7th quickest time of the morning session with Dutchman Nigel Melker (1’40″076), lined up on the #21 chassis. On the sister car, 2011 F3 Euroseries champion Roberto Mehri experienced an emotional return to single-seater racing after a couple of seasons in DTM as a Mercedes works driver. Used to the less extreme dynamics of a Touring car, the Spaniard needed some time to get acquainted with the lightning quick reactions of the F.Renault 3.5 car, but by the end of the day he had already picked up his pace, closing the afternoon session with a 1’40″866 that was just a few tenths shy of the top ten. Merhi will have more time to rebuild his feeling with the car as he will stay with Zeta Corse until Friday. Melker, instead, will leave the seat to Russian talent Roman Mavlanov, who will be driving on Wednesday and Thursday.    Nigel Melker: S1 – P7; S2 – P20
“I was really impressed with the team’s job today. In the morning session the car felt great and I managed to lap quickly without too much effort. Seventh place was good, but it could have been even better because I didn’t really make the most of fresh rubber. In the afternoon I didn’t manage to improve my laptime due to some smalls glitch with the fuel pump, but overall I was really happy with the way the day turned out”.  Roberto Merhi: S1 – P20; S2 – P19 “I knew that coming back to single seaters would have proven a challenge and I have to say that it was even tougher than I expected, it’s not an easy task. DTM cars maybe the fastest Saloons in the world, but F.Renault 3.5 is in a league of his own in terms of performance, something you can really feel on your neck and the rest of your body. Anyway in the late part of the afternoon session my laptimes started to improve and the pace wasn’t bad if you consider that actually I didn’t put on new tyres. At the moment they’d be wasted as I wouldn’t be able to make the most of them, so we decided to save fresh rubber for the next couple of days”.