February 24, 2011
Published on tags: Superleague
2009 World Champion Joe Consiglio broke Lee Morris's pre-season hegemony by topping the timesheets at the third test on the Portuguese track of Portimao.

The Maltese ace was slightly more than three tenths faster than Synergetic's Sam Millar, who confirmed his good form of late, and Draig's Morris, who was 0.688 off the pace. The leading trio was followed by Ashley Walsh on Nijo and Ben Morgan on Computrac, with Jyri Lylykorpi providing a welcome boost to Nordsjoen Racing's ambition to clinch a record fourth consecutive Constructors' Championship.

Portimao's highly technical track, with numerous changes of elevation and blind turns, provided a challenge for most drivers with even the most experienced being caught out in spins. Fortunately, the length of the track and the team's decision to reduce driving ranks for the test - in some cases dictated by budget planning - meant that the traffic issues of the Jerez and Hockenheim tests were not repeated.

The absolute workhorse of the Portimao test was Leontin Nemet, who completed 124 laps at the wheel of his Red Archer and provided plenty of data to his team. With the Monza test now two weeks away, on March 10th, all outfits will be concentrating on bringing in some big developments, with Woods, Williamson and Triple-Double Racing rumoured to be introducing new aerodynamic devices in time for the test at the Italian venue.

Autodromo Internacional de Algarve - Test Results