By alley - Mar 30, 2015, 9:31 AM ET

Vaxiviere tops Aragon Renault 3.5 test

Lotus Formula 1 junior driver Matthieu Vaxiviere set the fastest time in both sessions of the first day of the final Formula Renault 3.5 pre-season test at Motorland Aragon. Vaxiviere recorded a fastest lap of 1m41.331s in the morning session, before improving to 1m40.635s in the afternoon.

"This morning, we did a good job with our race settings before fine tuning the set-up for fast laps," said Vaxiviere. "We wanted to put in a time on new tyres at the end of the session. It turned out good and confirms our potential on this track.

"Our primary satisfaction lies in the step we've made with the new regulations, especially concerning the DRS. Tomorrow will be more important, we need to correctly prepare the car in low-downforce configuration [mandatory for Saturday qualifying and races this season] and also pit stops."

Red Bull-backed Dean Stoneman ended the day 0.517s adrift of Vaxiviere in second for reigning champions DAMS. Stoneman had suffered a heavy accident that disrupted his previous test outing at Jerez earlier this month and was keen to recover lost ground.

"It was a good day with the second best time this afternoon," said Stoneman. "We tried different things to get used to the car after Jerez and see if the different changes provoked an improvement or not."

"I think that Vaxiviere put in one more lap than me, so I would've been able to improve even more and I made some mistakes costing me a couple of tenths on my quickest lap. Tomorrow, it's all about learning the car with low downforce because we didn't run much at Jerez."

Formula Renault 2.0 graduate Egor Orudzhev took third for Arden Motorsport. The SMP-backed Russian headed Fortec's Jazeman Jaafar and Jerez pacesetter Tio Ellinas. Tom Dillmann completed the top six for Carlin.

Fresh from making his F1 debut in the Malaysian Grand Prix, Roberto Merhi completed a dash from Sepang to join the track action during the morning for Pons.

"Today was a positive day as Pons Racing got the car ready when I came here but I do have a little jet lag," said Merhi. "I would say I am at 90% of my capabilities."

Merhi's Pons teammate Philo Armand and Orudzhev caused red flags after suffering off-track moments.

The test concludes tomorrow, when drivers will concentrate on low-downforce running.

MORNING SESSION

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Matthieu Vaxiviere	Lotus	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.331s	-	36
2	Jazeman Jaafar	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.559s	0.228s	37
3	Oliver Rowland	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.562s	0.231s	45
4	Tom Dillmann	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.698s	0.367s	37
5	Gustav Malja	Strakka Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.771s	0.440s	36
6	Dean Stoneman	DAMS	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.871s	0.540s	37
7	Tio Ellinas	Strakka Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.883s	0.552s	45
8	Beitske Visser	AVF	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.935s	0.604s	30
9	Nyck De Vries	DAMS	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.031s	0.700s	36
10	Pietro Fantin	International Draco Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.119s	0.788s	35
11	Egor Orudzhev	Arden Motorsport	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.179s	0.848s	39
12	Meindert van Buuren	Lotus	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.993s	1.662s	47
13	Alfonso Celis	AVF	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.040s	1.709s	32
14	Roman Mavlanov	Zeta Corse	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.441s	2.110s	14
15	Aurelien Panis	Tech 1 Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.529s	2.198s	52
16	Nicholas Latifi	Arden Motorsport	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.625s	2.294s	21
17	Roberto Merhi	Pons Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.754s	2.423s	19
18	Sean Gelael	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.855s	2.524s	37
19	Roy Nissany	Tech 1 Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 43.857s	2.526s	43
20	Bruno Bonifacio	International Draco Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 44.247s	2.916s	22
21	Philo Paz Armand	Pons Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 44.459s	3.128s	34

AFTERNOON SESSION

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Matthieu Vaxiviere	Lotus	Dallara/Zytek	1m 40.635s	-	16
2	Dean Stoneman	DAMS	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.152s	0.517s	28
3	Egor Orudzhev	Arden Motorsport	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.295s	0.660s	22
4	Jazeman Jaafar	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.452s	0.817s	25
5	Tio Ellinas	Strakka Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.457s	0.822s	35
6	Tom Dillmann	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.509s	0.874s	25
7	Meindert van Buuren	Lotus	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.525s	0.890s	23
8	Gustav Malja	Strakka Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.545s	0.910s	41
9	Bruno Bonifacio	International Draco Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.615s	0.980s	20
10	Oliver Rowland	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.651s	1.016s	21
11	Pietro Fantin	International Draco Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.698s	1.063s	35
12	Beitske Visser	AVF	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.851s	1.216s	21
13	Roberto Merhi	Pons Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 41.867s	1.232s	40
14	Sean Gelael	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.281s	1.646s	29
15	Nicholas Latifi	Arden Motorsport	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.351s	1.716s	29
16	Alfonso Celis	AVF	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.494s	1.859s	31
17	Nyck De Vries	DAMS	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.526s	1.891s	31
18	Roman Mavlanov	Zeta Corse	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.597s	1.962s	25
19	Aurelien Panis	Tech 1 Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.658s	2.023s	38
20	Roy Nissany	Tech 1 Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 42.820s	2.185s	31
21	Philo Paz Armand	Pons Racing	Dallara/Zytek	1m 44.871s	4.236s	24