The penultimate round of the 50th season of Formula Renault got underway Friday morning in winter-like conditions with a temperature of 4°C.

Shortened to 30 minutes due to thick fog, the opening session saw Petr Ptáček (MP Motorsport), Caio Collet (R-ace GP) and Alex Quinn battle for the top spot before Hadrien David (MP Motorsport) kicked off the final runs in which David Vidales and Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport) joined the fight at the pointy end of the order.

Low-key early on, Victor Martins went to the top of the time sheet in the waning minutes. The French driver led with a lap of 1:37.305s to outpace Alex Quinn and the MP Motorsport trio of Franco Colapinto, Hadrien David and Petr Ptáček.

Barely more an hour later, the second session was warmer and times fell progressively before Paul Aron (ART Grand Prix) went on top.

The Estonian driver led for most of the session before Alex Quinn put the hammer down. Improving his times on three occasions, the Briton set the day’s best time of 1:37.289s, 0.064s quicker than Victor Martins. David Vidales slotted in third ahead of Caio Collet and Tijmen van der Helm (FA Racing) at the end of a session where the top 15 were covered by less than 0.9s

Collective tests 1 - Collective tests 2

Qualifying will get underway tomorrow morning at 9h40 before the first race of the weekend scheduled for 16h10.

Quotes

Alex Quinn (Arden Motorsport): "It’s a good start. I am very happy with my car so far and we will continue to work to be even faster. We have had some tough weekends but this has only strengthened our determination. We are back at the front of the order and we have to focus on the small details to make the difference. The temperatures will still be quite cold tomorrow. This should play a big role in qualifying, but I hope everything will go well!"

Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix): "Everything went fine during the first session. We did a good job with the car. The balance was good and I felt comfortable in the car. Then we had a clutch problem and some other small issues, but everything should be solved by qualifying. As always, we will aim for pole and victory tomorrow. We can also go for the team title this weekend. This is something we want and our lead should allow us to seal the deal on Saturday or Sunday!”

David Vidales (JD Motorsport): "We had two practice sessions, but the result is pretty positive. It’s always good to start the weekend this way even if it doesn’t mean anything. We are in a good position especially as it took me a few laps to learn the track but I feel confident. The race for the rookie title is getting intense, but I just have to keep on doing my job by learning as much as possible and finding both the car’s and my limits!”

Caio Collet (R-ace GP): "The tests went well. It was a bit cold but it was the same for everyone. We had some issues with the car. It was not ideal, but I am confident that the team will be able to solve them by qualifying tomorrow. I’m not really focused on the title. Victor is fast as always so the gap will be hard to close and our only target now is to win as many races as possible before the end of the season."