Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed a successful introduction to his new team ISR by twice breaking the Motorland Aragon record on the second and final day of the opening collective test of the Formula Renault 3.5 [aka World Series by Renault] season. America's Alexander Rossi also enjoyed a turn at the top of the times wit his Fortec team.
Australian Ricciardo moved into the top spot in the first hour of the morning session with a lap of 1m43,023s, before peaking with an effort of 1m42.237s.
"Yesterday, it was my first day working with the ISR team, so we had a few things to sort out," said Ricciardo. "Everything went quite well for us today. I like the way ISR works a lot. They don't send me out on track just to get some laps in, but every time we analyze a whole host of settings very closely."
Rossi and Gravity-Charouz's Brendon Hartley also had turns at the head of the timing screens. American Rossi eventually claimed second in the morning ahead of Epsilon Euskadi's Albert Costa.
"Heading into a new team and having to find your feet at times can be difficult for team and driver. Not this time," Rossi declared. "We worked through some initial car sorting, but were in a rhythm straight away – talking though engineering solutions and my driving style. Each time we took to the track the car improved, and today we made another jump forward from the good base yesterday which produced a greater improvement.
"Fortec is high caliber. The team has a good atmosphere and my teammate Cesar [Ramos] also did a good job. We are in good shape and everything points toward a good season ahead."
Several teams opted to conduct a race simulation in the afternoon session, before fitting a final set of fresh tires. Jan Charouz (Charouz-Gravity) was fastest for most of the afternoon before Ricciardo again moved to the front. The Red Bull junior driver again ended the session fastest with a lap in 1m42.311s. Reigning Italian Formula 3 champion Cesar Ramos and Canada's Robert Wickens rounded out the top three for Fortec and Carlin, respectively.
"I did two days of tests in Formula Renault 3.5 Series at the end of 2010, at this very same circuit, but that was the last time that I drove this car," said Ramos. "We are satisfied with the level of performance, especially as the field is unbelievably competitive. We have been working well together with Alexander Rossi, and we are both quick, which is a good sign for the future."