Palmer tops Tuesday test at Snetterton

Date published : 06 Apr 2010 - 20:36:00

Formula 2 news Palmer tops Tuesday test at Snetterton06 April 2010Jolyon Palmer led the way on the timesheets as Formula 2 testing recommenced at Snetterton on Tuesday. The 19-year-old's closest challengers, time-wise, at the Norfolk circuit were Philipp Eng and Johan Jokinen prior to the season-opening race at Silverstone next weekend. Palmer set the ultimate pace in the final hour of the day as Eng finally relinquished top spot, which he had held for much of the running. The Austrian tried to respond and became the only driver to dip under the one minute barrier in both the morning and afternoon, but he fell short of Palmer's effort by just 0.155. Palmer edged out Eng's best effort by a tenth of a secondDanish driver Johan Jokinen completed his rise through the top ten by taking third late on, whilst Dean Stoneman's morning lap time of 59.951 remained good enough for fourth overall at the finish. Will Bratt - who recently contested the GP2 Asia Series - was a consistent top six runner throughout the day and ended up fifth fastest ahead of Kelvin Snoeks. Dutchman Snoeks improved as the day progressed and eventually set his quickest time on his 99th and final lap. Belgium's Benjamin Bailly was seventh, ahead of Sergey Afanasiev - the Russian making progress late on during his first day of driving a Williams JPH1B. 2009 F2 returnees Tom Gladdis and Armaan Ebrahim completed the top ten, whilst Formula Palmer Audi graduate Jose Alonso Liste and F2 debutant Mihai Marinescu finished in 11th and 12th respectively. Alonso Liste completed an impressive 110 laps during the day - the most of any driver - but it was a positive day for the majority of runners, as more than 1,800 laps and 5,600 kilometres were clocked during the season's opening pre-season test day.