Stoneman Continues GP3 Development
Jerez, Spain, Thursday 10th & Friday 11th April 2014. Single seater returnee Dean Stoneman continued his preparation for his first season in GP3 this week with an official two-day test with the Marussia Manor Racing GP3 team.
As with the previous test in Estoril a fortnight ago, Stoneman and the team invested time in trying to get the Southampton based driver’s car to his liking by trying a number of suspension and aero settings at the Spanish circuit. Despite this attention to set up, Stoneman was still able to cut an impressive image on track as he hovered around the top ten times out of the twenty six cars running during day one of testing, finishing with a fastest time of 1:31.40.
Day two (Friday) saw the Marussia Manor Racing team make further set up changes to Stoneman’s car. Most of fastest running was done in the morning session prior to the sun coming out and slowing the track and times right down. In the afternoon session Stoneman did a number of laps in both qualifying and race set up. With his times around 1.33.00 in the warm Spanish sun the day ended positively for the 23-year old.
The Southampton based driver was pleased overall with the two days of testing. “ We have made some positive progress in the car. It was good to be at Jerez, this is another circuit I have never been to so that took some adjustment as well. I feel like we have moved forward lots from where we were which is encouraging.”
Stoneman now looks forward to the next official GP3 test at Barcelona 16/17 April; the last official test before the first race of the season 9/10 May in Barcelona, part of the F1 race programme for the Spanish Grand Prix.
For more information:
Ant Shaw
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0044 (0)7768 275464