Donington, FP1: Crestani tops the sheets

Fabrizio Crestani

Fabrizio Crestani and Lazarus started the Donington weekend in the best possible way. The Italian driver posted the fastest time in the first Free Practice, being the only one to break the 1'18 mark with 1'17"841. The team managed by Tancredi Pagiaro crowned a very good performance with a third place by Fabio Onidi, less than 3 tenths adrift from his team mate. In between them was Kevin Ceccon, at his first experience in Donington but already at ease with the Ombra Racing car.

Luca Filippi was fourth quickest, with a 1'18"192 that allowed him to stay ahead of his team mate Jon Lancaster: the brit lost nearly half of the session due to a radiator leak that was promptly fixed by SuperNova, but despite this he was very quick and took 5th place ahead of Samuele Buttarelli. The TP Formula driver seem to have kept momentum from his staggering Race 2 win in Brno, and finished the session ahead of Bruno Mendez and Adam Carroll: debuting on the Auto GP car, the brit of Campos Racing opted for a cautious approach, focusing on getting acquainted with the car on a track that was still a bit dirt and slippery.

Rio Haryanto and Giovanni Venturini closed the top ten, followed by Giuseppe Cipriani who keeps boasting and impressive improvement. The other Auto GP newcomer, Daniel de Jong, posted the 12th time, focusing on learning the Lola-Zytek more than anything else. Closing the sheet were Pasquale di Sabatino, Adrian Campos Jr. and Francesco Dracone. Also the Spanish driver, returning after his Monza crash, used the session to get the right feeling with the car back. It's worth to notice that Sergei Afanasiev was forced to miss this session and will miss the whole Friday. The Russian driver is facing delays in getting his visa and will try to get to track in time for tomorrow.

Donington, 15 July, Free Practice 1

1 Fabrizio Crestani Lazarus 1'17"841
2 Kevin Ceccon Ombra 1'18"083
3 Fabio Onidi Lazarus 1'18"125
4 Luca Filippi SuperNova 1'18"192
5 Jon Lancaster SuperNova 1'18"485
6 Samuele Buttarelli TP Formula 1'18"504
7 Bruno Mendez Campos Racing 1'18"540
8 Adam Carroll Campos Racing 1'18"567
9 Rio Haryanto Dams 1'18"901
10 Giovanni Venturini Durango 1'19"043
11 Giuseppe Cipriani Durango 1'19"335
12 Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1'19"600
13 Pasquale Di Sabatino TP Formula 1'19"645
14 Adrian Campos Campos 1'19"778
15 Francesco Dracone Ombra 1'24"005