AutoGP: Guerin tops the morning session

Smooth run for the Auto GP World Series cars in the first session of the collective test: the teams gathered on the Monza circuit for the first official outing on the new Kumho Tires, aiming to prepare their cars for the upcoming race weekend and to put both the available tire compounds to the test. With the track still a bit "green" in many spots and generally not providing the right grip in the early hours of the day, the teams decided to tackle the morning session with used tires. The first sets of new Kumho rubber (the harder compound) appeared on the cars with one hour to go, but there's a lot of room for improvement and the lap times are expected to drop consistently in the afternoon.

In those conditions it was Victor Guerin who topped the timesheet: the young Brazilian driving for SuperNova was one tenth quicker than Pal Varhaug with the Virtuosi UK entry, showing that the British newcomers already have a good pace. Good news also for MLR71, taking 3rd place with Sergio Campana and a 1'37"953. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, driving the other SuperNova car, ended the session with the fourth quickest time just over the 1'38"mark, ahead of the first Campos Racing car driven by Facundo Regalia. Sergey Sirotkin was 6th (1'38"443) ahead of Zoel Amberg (1'38"826) and Max Snegirev (1'39"012), with Giuseppe Cipriani and Giacomo Ricci closing the top ten.

Monza, 2 March 2012, Official Test

1 Victor Guerin SuperNova International 1'37"810
2 Pal Varhaug Virtuosi UK 1'37"949
3 Sergio Campana MLR71 1'37"953
4 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs SuperNova International 1'38"196
5 Facundo Regalia Campos Racing 1'38"400
6 Sergey Sirotkin Euronova Racing 1'38"443
7 Zoel Amberg Virtuosi UK 1'38"826
8 Max Snegirev Campos Racing 1'39"012
9 Giuseppe Cipriani Campos Racing 1'39"258
10 Giacomo Ricci Zele Racing 1'39"322
11 Daniel de Jong Manor MP Motorsport 1'39"445
12 Giancarlo Serenelli Ombra Racing 1'39"558
13 Antonio Spavone Euronova Racing 1'41"049
14 Michele La Rosa MLR71 1'41"316
15 Camilo Zurcher Ombra Racing No Time