More than 40 cars were on track in the two free practice sessions that officially opened the Imola weekend, first out of seven double venues of the Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS season.
Prema’s drivers Bruno Bonifacio and Andrew Tang topped the timesheet as the Brazilian – who is a wild card and thus not affecting the general standings – managed to be the fastest in the morning session in 1’56”148, just ahead of the Dutch Nyck de Vries (Koiranen GP) and the young rookie Charles Leclerc. The Monaco-based racer of Fortec Motorsports, 16 y/o, paid a 279 thousands gap from provisional pole. Among the other surprises the two other debs Matevos Isaakyan (JD Motorsport) and Matteo Cairoli (GSK Grand Prix), fourth and fifth respectively.
In a quite fragmented afternoon session (five red flags being waived) Tang managed to further improve. The driver from Singapore managed to keep behind Bonifacio, with Leclerc still third just ahead of his Fortec Motorsports team mate Matt Parry.
Russian Egor Orudzhev (Tech 1 Racing) finished fifth ahead of the two debuting George Russell (Koiranen GP) and Anthoine Hubert (Tech 1 Racing). Only four laps for the Indonesian Philo Paz Patric Armand (Tech 1 Racing), out after 10 minutes and responsible of the first red flag. A contact between Jack Aitken (Fortec Motorsports) and Zheng Sun (China BRT by JCS Team) caused the second red flag. The other Chinese Kang Ling (Koiranen GP) also spun.
Qualify will be held tomorrow. The pack will be splitted into two groups (A and B) and both will have 30 minutes time. The session will start with Group A at 10.15. In the afternoon at 5pm the Race 1 green light on the usual distance of 25’ plus a lap. Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 2.15 pm.
Both qualify and races will be live web broadcasted on FormulaRapida.net
Free Practice 1 (top 5): 1. Bruno Bonifacio BRA (Prema Powerteam) 1’56”148; 2. Nyck de Vries NED (Koiranen GP) 1’56”305; 3. Charles Leclerc MC (Fortec Motorsports) 1’56”427; 4. Matevos Isaakyan RUS (JD Motorsport) 1’56”987; 5. Matteo Cairoli ITA (GSK Grand Prix) 1’57”036.
Free Practice 2 (top 5): 1. Andrew Tang SIN (Prema Powerteam) 1’55”251; 2. Bruno Bonifacio BRA (Prema Powerteam) 1’55”346; 3. Charles Leclerc MC (Fortec Motorsports) 1’55”397; 4. Matt Parry GBR (Fortec Motorsports) 1’55”481; 5. Egor Orudzhev RUS (Tech 1 Racing) 1’55”885.
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