Race Number | Driver | Team |
1 | Nelson Piquet Jr | NEXTEV TCR |
2 | Sam Bird | DS Virgin |
6 | Loïc Duval | Dragon |
7 | Jérôme D’Ambrosio | Dragon |
8 | Sébastien Buemi | Renault eDAMS |
9 | Nicolas Prost | Renault eDAMS |
10 | Jarno Trulli | Trulli |
11 | Lucas Di Grassi | ABT Shaeffler AS |
12 | Jacques Villeneuve | Venturi |
21 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra |
23 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra |
25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Virgin |
27 | Simona De Silvestro | Amlin Andretti |
30 | Stéphane Sarrazin | Venturi |
55 | Tom Dillmann | Team Aguri |
77 | Salvador Duran Sanchez | Team Aguri |
88 | Oliver Turvey | NEXTEV TCR |
Sébastien Buemi’s late surge in speed saw him set the fastest time in the first of 6 days of pre-season testing at Donnington Park. Salvador Duran of Team Aguri put in the most laps of the day, 39 in his 77 machine, plus most of the 24 laps set in the 55 car shared with Tom Dillmann, in what was essentially the 2014/2015 car for Aguri.
The day started quietly, with the majority of drivers putting in less than 10 laps during the hour. Salvador Duran and Sébastien Buemi traded fastest lap times throughout the session, until Nick Heidfeld jumped to the top of the timing sheets with less than 5 minutes remaining. Unsurprisingly, the 3 fastest drivers set the most laps: 16 for Duran and 11 a piece for Buemi and Heidfeld.
After an extremely popular pitwalk at lunch, action on track resumed with Sam Bird getting plenty of action in his DS Virgin and setting an amazingly quick lap time. In terms of numbers of laps, which is really what matters during testing, Bird was only behind his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne and Duran. Sharing the car with Duran in the afternoon was 2010 German F3 Champion Tom Dillmann, with the Frenchman completing a few laps in preparation for his outing tomorrow.
A sharp rain shower gave drivers and teams the opportunity to explore their wet setup, although the track dried quickly in the uncharacteristic Derbyshire sunshine. Sam Bird’s flying lap took some beating, and it was Lucas Di Grassi who stepped up to the mark and edged ahead of Bird’s time. Soon after, in a last minute spate of action on track, Buemi wrangled his Renault eDams 0.06s quicker around the track than the Brazillian. eDams are building on an immensely strong 2014/2015 season, and will be hoping to retain the team championship this time around.
Testing continues tomorrow at Donnington from 9:00 until 17:00.