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Markus Pommer got his 2012 FIA Formula Two season off to the best possible start by ending today's (Wednesday) official pre-season test at Silverstone as the quickest driver overall.
During the final session, the 21-year-old posted a best time of 1:48.272s ahead of Mihai Marinescu and Luciano Bacheta. The session also marked the first outing for the new upgraded 2012-spec F2 car, which lapped the Northamptonshire circuit two seconds quicker than during last year's pre-season test.
Romanian driver Marinescu led the way during the early part of the 45-minute session with Swiss driver Matheo Tuscher and Axcil Jefferies impressing to go second and third respectively. Pommer, who has topped three of today's four sessions, then went top by a full half a second to edge out Marinescu with Luciano Bacheta moving into third.
Brits James Cole, Hector Hurst and Dino Zamparelli were also looking strong for the session as was China's F2 ambassador David Zhu and 2011 F2 runner-up Christopher Zanella.
With five minutes left to go, all four of the top drivers had broken into the 1:48s barrier but were unable to better Pommer's time handing the German the honours with both his overboost and non-overboost times being two seconds faster than Alex Brundle's best time (1:50.221s) at the 2011 Silverstone pre-season test.
Zanella finished fourth for the session with Tuscher fifth and Fontana sixth. Newcomer Kourosh Khani finished seventh with Daniel McKenzie eighth ahead of 2010 F2 champion Dean Stoneman and Jefferies.
Speaking afterwards Pommer said: "The car has felt fantastic all day and we've hardly had to make any changes. The morning times were really good and we could have gone quicker but we didn't want to push too hard too soon. During the third session we used worn tyres and concentrated on longer, race runs which went really well and the tyres didn't drop off at all. The final overboost session was really good too and I'm feeling confident for the season ahead."
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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