Second row for SMP by AVF in Monza Q1

Just a couple of days after the completion of their weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, SMP Racing by AVF went back to action at Monza. The legendary Italian track is hosting the third round of the 2017 World Series Formula V8 3.5, and the squad led by Adrián Vallés started with the right foot on Friday with a 1-2 finish in the opening practice.

Egor Orudzhev set the fastest time of FP1 in front of team-mate Matevos Isaakyan as track conditions kept improving after the overnight rain. In FP2, Isaakyan and Orudzhev remained close to the top, ending up in fourth and fifth position respectively. The two young Russian drivers then entered the first qualifying session, which was made more complicated by a minor rainfall around the mid-point. The conditions stayed good enough for slick tyres though and Matevos secured the fourth fastest time, a couple of hundreds of a second shy of the front row. On the other hand, Egor took the sixth spot on the grid for the opening race.

Race 1 at Monza is scheduled for tomorrow at 15:25. It will be preceded by the Q2 session at 11:35.

Matevos Isaakyan
“I was really fast on the wet, being quite dominant for most of the first session. Then qualifying was a bit tougher because we struggled with the setup. Anyway, second row sounds quite good. I was also blocked during my last lap, otherwise I could have been in P2 or P3 easily, but I am still not too far from the drivers in front so everything is possible”.

Egor Orudzhev
“It wasn’t the best of days for us. After a very good first practice session we hoped to get a better position. Probably the red flag at the end of qualifying prevented us from improving because I was fourth before the tyre change. That said, we are already working together with the team to find the right setup for tomorrow. We are motivated to score a top result”.