Aleshin leads the way in Magny Cours

Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin set the pace in collective practice in Magny Cours today, as preparations got underway for the fifth round of the Formula Renault 3.5 season. As the current championship leader, Aleshin not only set the pace in his FR3.5 car, but also enjoyed a 30 minute test in the Renault F1 car. Team mate Jake Rosenzweig was also on the pace, the American rookie finished the day fifth quickest for the Carlin team.

Mikhail Aleshin Credit: Carlin

Rain early this morning meant the first session of the day was declared wet, with all the FR3.5 drivers taking to the track on wet tyres. As the track dried out, the drivers started to switch to slick tyres as the lap times started to drop. Apart from a few short yellow flag periods, the session passed without incident and after 1 hour and 15 minutes on track, Aleshin was fourth while Rosenzweig was seventh.

While the other FR3.5 drivers completed their normal test day procedures and debriefed with their engineers, Aleshin was involved in more high-speed activities. As a prize for leading the championship at the mid-way point of the season, Aleshin enjoyed 30 minutes in the Renault R29 F1 car and impressed the Renault team with his feedback and attitude.

A short rain shower just as practice resumed this afternoon threatened to make it another wet session, but the rain eased allowing the drivers some dry running. Both Rosenzweig and Aleshin ran a comprehensive test programme and after making several changes to his car, Rosenzweig was second for the majority of the session. The FR3.5 rookie continued to work through his set-up programme and at the end of the day had set the fifth fastest time.

Aleshin meanwhile was clearly unflustered by his earlier run in the F1 car. The Russian completed several short runs in between set-up changes to set the fastest time of the day in the final minutes of the session.

Speaking about his test, Aleshin said, "It was a very interesting day in every respect I think! First of all we had a really good day's testing and we worked a lot on the car. We developed the set up a little bit throughout the day, and did quite a lot of short runs in the afternoon as we made a few little changes. It was good to finish the day P1, so our pace is promising, but it only really counts tomorrow.

"Of course the other part of the day that was interesting for me was the drive in the Renault F1 car, which was a very important experience for me. It was only a short amount of time but I really enjoyed it and got on very well with the team who were extremely helpful. The most important thing for me is that the team were very positive in their feedback and seemed pleased with me. I'm looking forward to having another go tomorrow."

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