Mikhail Aleshin and Robert Wickens head to Italy for this weekend's opening World Series by Renault round hoping to repeat their pre-season test pace when racing gets underway at the historic Monza circuit on Saturday.
Having topped the timesheets at the final pre-season test in Barcelona, Canadian Wickens makes his debut at Monza on top form. The 19-year old will only be taking part in his third World Series event this weekend, having raced with Carlin at the final two rounds of the season last year, but has shown enough to be listed among the favourites for the title.
“It's good to finish the last pre-season test quickest," he admitted, "We've developed the car as I like it, so I'm confident ahead of the first race. I'm pleased with how the test went. We made some good progress with our test programme and I think we have a good set-up as my engineer and I made some good steps forward. I don't think that missing the final session [to head to China to race for Team Canada in A1GP] hurt us at all.
I haven't been to Monza before, but I'm used to learning new circuits quickly and we have quite a lot of track time before the qualifying sessions. I'm excited that the season is finally getting underway - the new car is good and I think this weekend will show which teams have got to grips with it. I'm confident that both Carlin cars will be consistently quick and we should be aiming for podiums, if not a win."
Team-mate Aleshin heads to Monza having won at the circuit last year, the 20-year Russian dominating proceedings to take pole position and lead from start to finish. On the pace with the new 2008-spec Dallara, Aleshin returns to Italy in confident mood.
![Robert Wickens - Carlin Motorsport [pic credit: Renault Sport Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/397440.jpg)
