Tottenham's off-season transfer signing Craig Dolby set the fastest time in the 90 minutes of free practice ahead of qualifying for the opening round of Superleague Formula, the football-based single-seater championship, at Magny-Cours in France.
Ex-Anderlecht driver Dolby topped the opening 45-minute session, lapping the Spurs car in 1m25.966s in the cool of the morning. The second period was held in much warmer conditions, when the pace was set by Porto's local hero Tristan Gommendy on 1:27.005s -- who had failed to appear in the quicker first session.
Dolby finished that session down in fifth, 0.719s off the pace and took a trip in the gravel at the 180 corner, so much will depend on which weather conditions teams and drivers will encounter in qualifying.
Dolby was 0.433s faster in the opening session than John Martin's Rangers machine. The Australian had one of the biggest moments of the day, a big spin at the ultra-quick right-left Imola sweeper in the second session.
Liverpool's Adrian Valles set the third quickest lap of the day for Liverpool, ahead of Corinthians' ex-F1 racer Antonio Pizzonia.
Martin led the series rookies, ahead of Ho-Pin Tung (sixth-fastest for Atletico Madrid), GP2 champion Giorgio Pantano (seventh for AC Milan) and Enrique Bernoldi (eighth for Flamengo). In the one-hour "rookie" session which followed, Pantano set the pace with a lap of 1:26.684s.