Zeta Corse and Merhi deliver top three performance in Moscow Free Practice
Finally on home soil after four rounds in Italy, Spain, Monaco and Belgium, Zeta Corse started the Moscow round of the 2014 World Series by Renault campaign on the right foot. On the track located in the outskirts of the Russian capital the team posted the day’s third quickest time thanks to an amazing drive by Roberto Merhi. On the challenging layout designed by F1 architect Hermann Tilke, the Spaniard was 10th in the morning session, but in Free Practice 2 he made the most of a very competitive car and upped his pace considerably, posting a 1’21″295 that was enough to keep most of the field at bay. On the team’s other car, Russian rookie Roman Mavlanov confirmed the improving trend he showed in the recent championship rounds. 15th in the morning with a 1’23″344, in the afternoon he improved his laptime by more than half a second despite choosing not to use new tyres, a clear sign that he’s still making progress. Roman will now focus on keeping momentum, trying to deliver the best possible performance in tomorrow morning’s qualifying session.
Roberto Merhi: S1 – P10; S2 – P3
“I’m really happy with the team’s job today: we had a quite hectic morning trying many different solutions but it really paid off as we found a set-up that gives us a car that is both very quick and balanced. We aren’t perfect yet, there are still some tweaks we need to do here and there, but we found a good baseline and that’s the best way to start a racing weekend”.
Roman Mavlanov: S1 – P15; S2 – P18
“It was a very productive day for us. I already raced here last year with the F.Renault 2.0 Eurocup, but the 3.5 car is a completely different beast, at the speeds it can attain the track becomes much narrower and challenging. That said, I worked really hard with my engineer because I’d really like to get a good result in front of my home crowd, and I have to say that I’m pretty happy with the outcome of our day. We still need to find some pace, but I have the confidence to push the car to its limit and that’s a good premise”.
