The first day of the pre-season testing ahead of the 2024 Formula Virtual World Championship provided the first glimpse into the running order this season. It was a day for the reserve drivers, with Sebastien Vocquelin, Giani Ledesma, Dmytro Kovalenko, Dominykas Zvironas and Samir Yilmaz taking five of the top six positions. The pace of the Porsche team, with ‘The Voc’ at the wheel, had eyebrows raised up and down the paddock. The Frenchman’s lap time of 1:11.161, on the hard tyres, was over six tenths clear of reigning World Champion Klaas van Snelheid – with the Dutchman on the soft tyres to boot. Closely behind Klaas’ Downton was Giani Ledesma, who took the reigns of the new Lambo 224 for the day, also on the soft tyres. Further back, Kovalenko and Zvironas, in the AMR and Kowhai respectively, were separated by one thousandth of a second on the hard tyres – could we be in for an Australia vs New Zealand battle between the two this season? Samir Yilmaz showed well for Ingram in sixth, the Moroccan just over two tenths shy of the fastest soft tyre time of Klaas van Snelheid. Sergio Alvarez’s Lopez WL-XI led the trio of medium tyre runners in the midfield, the Argentine just under a tenth clear of Hunter Ryan – in his first appearance for FIRST – and Felipe Cesar in the TBC-liveried Ocelot. Just behind them, Anna Jelizaveta put in a strong showing for the new Cyber Automata outfit; the team pleased to see the Russian driver only a few tenths shy of the other hard runners. Her time was just good enough to put her ahead of Chloe King – deputising for Phoenix. King, however, was the slowest of all the soft tyre runners and the British team will be left slightly concerned with the apparent lack of pace in the PX7. Not far behind King, Will Hoskins set a respectable time for Maserati on the medium tyres with Forini’s SRT just under a tenth further back – also on the mediums. Matteo Zetticci, after switching from World Champions Downton to Peugeot Westwood, found himself almost 1.3 seconds off the pace of Vocquelin, although it seemed Peugeot were more focussed on ensuring reliability than overall lap time. At the very back of the field, 3.425 seconds off the pace, was the McNair ARROW of Daniel Zientek. The Pole only managed a handful of laps after mechanical issues kept him in the garage for a large chunk of the session. Official classification below:
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