Formula Renault 3.5 – Zeta Corse closes the gap on Day 3 with Merhi and Mavlanov

The third and final day of F.Renault 3.5 testing in Alcaniz marked a clear improvement for Zeta Corse. Despite the two sessions being heavily disrupted by an unexpected rain shower that hit the track between 11 AM and 2.30 PM, the Russian team managed to carry out a valuable work programme that resulted in major improvements to both their cars’ setup and behaviour. That allowed Roberto Mehri to cut his gap to the frontrunners to just one second, not a bad result considering that the Spaniard is still learning how to exploit the very high grip level and the lightning quick reactions of the car after two years passed in Touringcar racing. Roman Mavlanov kept progressing as well, and impressed the team with his focus and dedication: an half dry/half wet track in both session was the worst possible condition for a rookie, but the Russian talent kept his head cool, showing a good pace in the wet and didn’t do any mistake when the track progressively dried up. It was quite an achievement because many drivers with much more experience in the car than Roman went off track, causing the afternoon session to be red-flagged a record seven times. The team will is now heading to the factory where the technical staff will analyze the great amount of data collected throughout the three days. Zeta Corse will then be back on track in one-month time in Jerez, for the second collective test of the season. Roman Mavlanov:

S1 – P19; S2 – P18 “Today wasn’t an easy day for a rookie. Rain made the track quite tricky, and in the afternoon finding the pace was really difficult with all those red flags. That considered, I think that I really did a good job in reducing my gap from the front and working with the team to suit the car to my driving. It could have been even better if it wasn’t for a small engine glitch, but overall I’m satisfied with what we achieved”. Roberto Merhi:

S1 – P17; S2 – P12 “Today I switched cars with Roman, just to see if that was going to give me more confidence and I have to say that it worked. Despite being hampered by both the rain and the red flags, that prevented us from carrying out all the setup changes we wanted, I managed to be quicker and more consisted, halving the gap from the leaders. It’s a very good sign because there’s still room for improvement with both the car and my driving, so we can be sure that in the next test we will be much closer to the top”.