Gutiérrez takes morning top spot in Valencia

The GP3 Series test at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia continued today and it was yesterday afternoon’s leading men who led the way again. ART Grand Prix’s Esteban Gutiérrez took the honors for best in class, and was the first driver to break the 1:26 barrier after posting a lap time of 1:26.773. Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne continued his great performance putting his Tech 1 Racing car in second spot with a time of 1:26.985, and was closely followed by yesterday’s quickest man Status GP’s Robert Wickens who posted a time of 1:27.011.

Yet again the conditions were dry and bright, and all ten teams took to the track as soon as the pit lane opened for business. With temperatures rapidly rising during the session the track began to slow and for most drivers it was the early laps that counted. Eight different cars filled the top ten spots with Jenzer Motorsport’s Nico Muller taking fourth with a lap time of 1:27.056. Gutierrez’s ART teammate Alexander Rossi was up in fifth spot followed by Muller’s teammate Simon Trummer in sixth.

RSC Mucke Motorsport’s Nigel Melker showed he’s still got speed posting a lap time of 2:27.448 to take seventh. Manor Motorsport’s James Jakes was in eighth spot followed by Addax Team’s Felipe Guimaraes, the Brazilian continuing to impress after his podium in Istanbul. Drive of the morning goes to GP3 new man Roberto Merhi, the Spaniard is driving for the first time in the Series today in the #29 car for Atech CRS GP. A total of 1102 laps were completed during the three hour morning session. The test resumes at 14:00 pm local time. Morning session complete results:

Pos. No. Driver Team Best Lap Laps Gap
1 2 GUTIERREZ,Esteban ART Grand Prix 01:26,773 42
2 28 VERGNE,Jean E. Tech 1 Racing 01:26,985 38 0.212
3 4 WICKENS,Robert Status Grand Prix 01:27,011 31 0.238
4 25 MULLER,Nico Jenzer Motorsport 01:27,056 48 0.283
5 1 ROSSI,Alexander ART Grand Prix 01:27,418 33 0.645
6 24 TRUMMER,Simon Jenzer Motorsport 01:27,439 40 0.666
7 10 MELKER,Nigel RSC Mueke Motorsport 01:27,448 41 0.675
8 7 JAKES,James Manor Racing 01:27,459 40 0.686
9 17 GUIMARAES,Felipe Addax Team 01:27,505 39 0.732
10 29 MERHI,Roberto Atech CRS GP 01:27,561 52 0.788