Farina fastest as testing gets underway at Sakhir

Gojira’s Alessandro Farina set the fastest time of the day as the FF1M Manufacturer test got underway today.

Driving an all-black testing livery, Farina’s time was set in the morning hour-long session, a 53.031 second lap around the short Outer Circuit at Bahrain International Circuit. The fastest time of the afternoon hour was set by fellow Gojira runner Mario Da Silva, a 53.049, just under two hundredths of a second slower and second place in the overall rankings.

Series veteran Nico Hulkenburg completed a Gojira top three, ahead of the FJR’s of Catharina Caracciola and Benjamin Pryor. The top five runners all on Goodyear tyres. Bram De Boer was the fastest Firestone and Shake n Bake runner in 6th place ahead of the remaining Gojira, George Russell and the fastest Tornado runner Esteban Ocon.

It was a slow start for the drivers who begin pre-season amongst the favourites for the title, with Fernando Alonso 10th, Vaino Kimminen 11th, and Kevin Magnussen in 13th as the teams tried to get to grips with the new tyre compounds.

In terms of laps completed, Tornado led the way on 161 laps, ahead of Shake n Bake on 159. Ajay Motorsports were third on 158, whilst Gojira completed 155. FJR brought up the rear with a distant 144 laps.

All of the Goodyear runners, with the exception of FJR’s Antonio Giovinazzi, spent the day on the softer tyre compound, whilst the Firestone runners used the Medium compound, except for Fernando Alonso and the four Ajay runners, who ran using the Hard tyres.

Testing continues tomorrow with a further two hours of running at the Bahrain International Circuit.

FF1M		AFIA FF1M WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
		SAKHIR OUTER CIRCUIT			2017 ENGINE MANUFACTURER TEST
POS	NUM	DRIVER NAME	NAT	TEAM	CHASSIS	ENGINE	MAN	COMP	LAPTIME	LAPS
1	93	Alessandro Farina	IT	Gojira	BD-17	Mugen	G	S	53.031s	37
2	9	Mario Da Silva	BR	Gojira	BD-17	Mugen	G	S	53.049s	38
3	27	Nico Hulkenberg	DE	Gojira	BD-17	Mugen	G	S	53.177s	39
4	71	Catharina Caracciola	CH	Fjr	JB-16B	Judd	G	S	53.197s	38
5	54	Benjamin Pryor	GB	Fjr	JB-16B	Judd	G	S	53.207s	38
6	82	Bram De Boer	NL	Shake N Bake	ASS-17	Megatron	F	M	53.245s	41
7	63	George Russell	GB	Gojira	BD-17	Mugen	G	S	53.251s	41
8	31	Esteban Ocon	FR	Tornado	TRB-16B	Climax	F	M	53.293s	44
9	91	Nolan Bryant	US	Shake N Bake	ASS-17	Megatron	F	M	53.310s	37
10	14	Fernando Alonso	ES	Shake N Bake	ASS-17	Megatron	F	H	53.339s	42
11	72	Vaino Kimminen	FI	Tornado	TRB-16B	Climax	F	M	53.343s	37
12	53	Itsuki Yoshida	JP	Shake N Bake	ASS-17	Megatron	F	M	53.384s	39
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	DK	Fjr	JB-16B	Judd	G	S	53.441s	35
14	8	Romain Grosjean	FR	Tornado	TRB-16B	Climax	F	M	53.518s	41
15	16	Charles Leclerc	MC	Tornado	TRB-16B	Climax	F	M	53.543s	39
16	88	Robert Kubica	PL	Ajay	AJ-17	Hart	F	H	53.712s	40
17	69	James Clark	GB	Ajay	AJ-17	Hart	F	H	53.776s	37
18	60	Pierre Gasly	FR	Ajay	AJ-17	Hart	F	H	53.778s	44
19	98	Mattia Alfonsi	IT	Ajay	AJ-17	Hart	F	H	53.833s	37
20	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	IT	Fjr	JB-16B	Judd	G	M	53.967s	37

FF1M		AFIA FF1M WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
		SAKHIR OUTER CIRCUIT		2017 ENGINE MANUFACTURER TEST
POS	NUM	TEAM NAME	NAT			MAN			LAPS
1		TORNADO							161
2		Shake n Bake							159
3		Ajay							158
4		GOJIRA							155
5		FJR							148