Eagerly awaited, the first direct head-to-head matchup between Bruno Senna and Nicolas Prost as teammates in the Prati-Donaduzzi team ended basically in a “dead heat” on Thursday (the 19^th), in Goiânia, where the wildcard drivers invited to the Stock Car series opening round performed an exclusive test. In the first group of 17 drivers, on dry asphalt, Nicolas finished in 8^th place. Included in the second half of the one-hour session, on a wet track, Bruno finished in 7^th place. The fastest driver of the day was Argentina’s Nestor Girolami, Ricardo Mauricio’s teammate in RC Motorsport.

The unstable weather announced by meteorologists for the whole weekend was confirmed yesterday in the capital of the state of Goiás. The rain came in the middle of the afternoon and prevented a more accurate comparison among the various illustrious names that will embellish Sunday’s (the 22^nd) race. Impressed by the resemblance to his father, the four-time Formula 1 champion Alain Prost, Nicolas said he very much liked the track, but admitted the natural difficulties of his first contact with the category. “I never drove such a heavy car as the one in Stock Car. It is not easy to get here and immediately drive at the same pace as those who are already accustomed, but I’m sure I will get better as the practices go. In addition, Júlio Campos is helping me a lot,” he thanked Júlio, referring to the driver from Paraná with whom he’ll divide car number 4.

Bruno, who will race again with Antonio Pizzonia, from Amazonas, one of 13 former Formula 1 drivers in the race, praised the setup for the wet track. “The car is very good, especially in the middle of the bends. I was not faster only because there was a very slow guy in front of me in the middle of the circuit, right when I was improving my partials. But we have a good base.” In the end of the session, Bruno tried putting on slicks, but the water left on the circuit did not allow him to lower his time.

Technical director Juan Carlos “Mico” Lopez liked the duo’s calling card. “Nicolas started very well, and Bruno was going very fast when the track was more slippery. In the more bendy stretch, he was the fastest,” he analyzed. The teams also carried out trials for the substitution of drivers. Today (the 20^th), the track activities will resume at 2:20PM, when the first group of wildcards will have another 50 minutes to adapt to the category and to the circuit from Goiás.