Two 50-minute sessions were on the programme for the drivers to find their marks on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya while Spain’s Kilian Meyer (M2 Competition) made his Formula Renault debut.

Oscar Piastri led early in the morning session before Victor Martins and Amaury Cordeel (MP Motorsport) picked up the pace. The Australian began the final sprint with a return to the top of the timing screen but when the chequers waved it was Lorenzo Colombo setting fastest lap in 1:42.389s ahead of Victor Martins and Caio Collet. Renault Sport Affiliate Driver Leonardo Lorandi (JD Motorsport) and Ugo de Wilde (JD Motorsport) were next, separated by just 0.001s.

In the afternoon, Caio Collet, Oscar Piastri and Victor Martins swapped fastest lap several times before Lorenzo Colombo took over. Ten minutes from the end of the session, Victor Martins moved ahead with a lap of 1:42.890s. After a red flag to allow for the removal of the car of Brad Benavides (FA Racing by Drivex), the order went unchanged and the Frenchman led from the Italian and Oscar Piastri. Rookie drivers Kush Maini (M2 Competition) and Amaury Cordeel completed the top five.

Tomorrow, the first qualifying session gets underway at 9h00 before the race scheduled to start at 13h15.

Collective tests 1 - Collective tests 2

Quotes

Lorenzo Colombo (MP Motorsport): “Victor and I had a strong start to the weekend, finishing one-two in both sessions. Our pace was solid, as it was during the pre-season, but now we have to make the right decisions to stay ahead of the R-ace GP cars both in qualifying and in the race. We have big objectives, so we cannot afford any mistakes and I would like to close the gap to Victor and Oscar in the general classification.”

Xavier Lloveras (Global Racing Service): “Finally, my home round! We have to continue to work to improve as we have since the beginning of the season. We have been pretty fast in the most recent races and I hope we can keep the momentum going while scoring some good points. It is a bit hard being the only driver in the team, but we are a big family and we are reaching our goals step by step. A top five would be good, but we have to focus more on performance than position. The results will come by themselves.”

Amaury Cordeel (MP Motorsport): “It was a pretty good Friday, but we need to keep improving and catch up to the leaders. Little by little, we are building up. The Budapest weekend was promising, and Barcelona has to be even better if I want to run up front and to be on pace with Lorenzo and Victor before the end of the year!”

Kilian Meyer (M2 Competition): “I was at school yesterday when the team called me to come this weekend. My first session in a Formula Renault went perfectly. The aerodynamics and the brakes are a lot different than in an F4 and I like it a lot even though I don’t have a lot of time to adapt! A small glitch in the afternoon prevented us to find our potential on new tyres, but I am pleased with how the day went. I will try to, step by step, move up the order before we see what we can do in race conditions.”