18 octobre 2013
Bortolotti dominates testing in Spain
Mirko Bortolotti (Oregon Team) clocked the fastest time in Friday’s two Eurocup Megane Trophy testing sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The points leader outpaced Mike Verschuur (McGregor by Equipe Verschuur) and Kevin Gilardoni (Oregon Team) in the morning before recording the day’s quickest lap in the afternoon, with Kevin Gilardoni and Stefano Comini (Team Lompech Sport) behind him.
The Megane Trophy V6s hit the track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday morning under hazy skies. The session began with Kelvin Snoeks (Oregon Team) and Mike Verschuur battling it out atop the timesheets, with Stefano Comini and Mirko Bortolotti quickly joining the fight.
The Italian moved out front before Vladimir Lunkin (Oregon Team) came to grief, prompting an interruption. On the resumption the championship leader pulled out three even quicker laps to take the benchmark time down to 1:52.474, which no one else could match. Second-fastest behind him was Mike Verschuur, followed by Kevin Gilardoni, Erik Janis (Gravity Charouz) and Kelvin Snoeks (Oregon Team).
Mike Verschuur briefly led the way in the afternoon only for Mirko Bortolotti to dislodge him. With 18 minutes remaining Stefano Comini took over at the top before Kevin Gilardoni moved ahead five minutes from the close.
The positions remained unchanged until the closing seconds, when Mirko Bortolotti produced a flying lap of 1:52.104 to claim the day’s spoils from his team-mate and Stefano Comini. Mike Verschuur and Kelvin Snoeks completed the leading trio.
What they said
Mirko Bortolotti : “We tried to follow our usual programme for today’s testing. We’ve made a good start and we’re competitive with both our qualifying and race set-ups. It wasn’t a very heavy day. To improve we just need to make a few adjustments and do some refuelling simulations. I’m very happy to have made a perfect start to the weekend but it’s tomorrow when things will really count.”
Kevin Gilardoni : “It was a tricky day. I didn’t feel completely at ease this morning and we changed the balance of the brakes. I went faster with the new tyres to start with but I got hit by a white car twice and lost pace after that. Overall, we’re in the mix though. Tomorrow’s another day and I hope to go well in qualifying. I’d love to win at least one race before the end of the season, and I’ll be going flat out till the end.”
Stefano Comini : “It’s never easy to come back into a discipline after you’ve left it. It’s hard to find pace when you don’t have the traction you get in the Clio Cup. The Megane Trophy V6 is a demanding race car and it’s all very different. I’m adapting pretty quickly but we need to keep on working and up our speed on the long runs. The races will be long and our pit stops are fast.”
Collective test 1 classification
