Gabriele Minì set the pace in the pre collective test with the best time of 2m15.737s in the three-hour session that officially opened the weekend at Spa Francorchamps.
The Italian, who holds second place in the overall standings only nine points behind Dino Beganovic (Prema Racing), drove his ART Grand Prix single seater to set the fastest time, beating provisional test leader Paul Aron.
Prema Racing’s Estonian was one of the fastest driver on the track from the very beginning of the session, in which he was second ahead of Eduardo Barrichello.
Brazilian driver at the wheel of an Arden Motorsport car rounded out the top three with rookies Sebastian Montoya (Prema Racing) and Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident Motorsport) next up, and five different teams were represented in the top five on the timesheets.
Behind them Beganovic was sixth fastest less than six tenth away from the overall best time. Tim Tramnitz (Trident Motorsport) was seventh just 0.012s away from Hadrien David (R-ace GP), who won his second race of the season two weeks ago at the Hungaroring. Mari Boya, who will complete his season with the colors of MP Motorsport and Kas Haverkort (Van Amersfoort Racing) rounded off the top 10.
The Formula Regional European Championship will reignite its engines this afternoon for the first collective test at 3:15 p.m.
