Ellinas leads FR3.5 practice in Austria

Tio Ellinas topped the 50-minute Formula Renault 3.5 test session at the Red Bull Ring on Friday afternoon. The Strakka driver, who is chasing his first win of the season, recorded a fastest time of 1m18.222s.

Brazilian Pietro Fantin squeezed in a final flying lap just before the checkered flag, and used it to good advantage by taking second spot, 0.146 seconds behind the Cypriot.

Championship leader Oliver Rowland took third on an afternoon when his championship rival, Lotus Formula 1 junior driver, Matthieu Vaxiviere was an atypical 18th as his team experimented with a medium-downforce set-up and focused on high-fuel running.

Briton Rowland has kept busy since the preceding meeting at the Hungaroring, including making a strong impression on his first GP2 outing at the British Grand Prix-support race last weekend and demonstrating a Surtees TS19 Formula 1 car in a Henry Surtees Foundation event at Brooklands.

Tom Dillmann claimed fourth for Carlin, ahead of Tech 1's improving European Formula 3 graduate Roy Nissany.

Both Pons entries of Roberto Merhi and team returnee Meindert van Buuren enjoyed a couple of turns each at the head of the timing screens.

Merhi, who has recent experience of the Spielberg circuit from participating in the Austrian GP for the Manor F1 team, occupied top spot for a quarter of an hour in the middle of the session, before slipping to sixth.

Van Buuren was the only driver other than the impressive Ellinas to hold first place in the final 20 minutes of running, when he produced a superb lap with three minutes left on the clocks.

The Dutchman, who has rejoined Pons at the Red Bull Ring after racing for Lotus in the opening four rounds of the season, would fall to ninth.

Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup points leader Louis Deletraz improved throughout the session on his category debut. The Swiss edged out Hungaroring winner Egor Orudzhev to take 20th for Comtec, on the team's maiden outing of the season.

As part of the one-off FR3.5 schedule revamp for the Red Bull Ring – where the championship runs alongside the European Le Mans Series rather than within its usual World Series by Renault package – only one practice session took place on Friday, with the other moved to Saturday morning.

Saturday's timetable also features two qualifying sessions, with both races on Sunday.

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Originally on Autosport.com