Stockinger and Chaves in the Top 10 with Status GP at Valencia
Marlon Stockinger set the third fastest time with Status Grand Prix at the last day of the official GP3 Series test at the Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuit on Thursday, while Gabby Chaves marked his debut with the team by closing out the final session seventh fastest. Japanese teenager Kotaro Sakurai also continued his progress with the team, although he had to overcome some challenges.
Stockinger, who is preparing for his second season in the Formula One support-race championship, returned to Status GP for second day of the Valencia test having driven with the team at the Barcelona test last month. With a dry track and clear blue skies, the Filipino immediately settled into a good rhythm on used Pirelli P Zero slick tyres before bolting on one of the two new sets allocated for day.
His best lap of 1m26.407s placed Stockinger third behind Daniel Abt and Matias Laine, who both used two sets of new tyres in the cool morning conditions. With the three-hour morning session at the 2.51-mile circuit providing the best track conditions, these times remained as the best in the overall classifications of the whole two-day test. Stockinger continued his strong form on the warmer afternoon session, showing good speed on used tyres before setting a 1m27.224s on his final new set, which left him classified fourth, just 0.27sec behind the fastest time set by Conor Daly.
Chaves familiarised himself with the Status GP car and team through the morning session, and worked through a braking issue to post the 13th fastest time. The US-based Colombian dialled then continued to dial the car into for his final new-tyre run at the end of the day, but unfortunately a damaged floorplank interrupted his progress at the tyre's optimum point. On returning to the track in the final minutes the 18-year-old, who was chosen to be enrolled into the FIA Institute Academy last week, impressed by putting a lap together which placed him seventh, 0.39s off the fastest.
British F3 National Class champion Kotaro Sakurai continued with Status GP for the second day of the test, but found his progression frustrated by an engine problem which lost him nearly two hours of running while it was replaced. The Japanese teenager returned to the circuit in the afternoon with new tyres, and was only driver to improve his time in the afternoon session. But with the limited the track time meant it still proved difficult to break the 1m27s barrier and he was classified 19th.
The Status GP team now moves to southern Spain for the final winter two-day at Jerez next week on December 1-2.
Posted Date: 17th Jan 2012