Davide Valsecchi has topped the timesheets on the first day of the final GP2 Series pre-season test, held at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.
In the morning session it was Jolyon Palmer who set the initial pace for Arden, before being displaced at the head of the standings by fellow Briton Max Chilton of Carlin. AirAsia man Valsecchi went top at the half-way point. Addax driver Charles Pic ended the session on top though, beating Valsecchi's best by just four hundredths of a second. Esteban Gutierrez was third for ART, with Romain Grosjean and Sam Bird rounding out the top five for Dams and iSport respectively.
Valsecchi set the early pace in the afternoon session, until Jules Bianchi went quickest for ART shortly before the one hour mark, a whole 1.9 seconds faster. The rest of the field set about reaching this benchmark, but it took until the final hour when Luca Filippi took top spot for Super Nova. Fellow Italian Valsecchi improved his time in the final half hour to take top spot back, where he remained until the checkered flag, helped by two red flag periods late on. Filippi remained in second, ahead of Bianchi, Michael Herck (Coloni), and Grosjean.
Morning session times:
Driver | Team | Laptime | Gap | Laps | |
1. | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:29.875 | 31 | |
2. | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | 1:29.915 | +0.040 | 23 |
3. | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 1:29.976 | +0.101 | 25 |
4. | Romain Grosjean | Dams | 1:30.051 | +0.176 | 19 |
5. | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:30.059 | +0.184 | 23 |
6. | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:30.183 | +0.308 | 25 |
7. | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1:30.228 | +0.353 | 27 |
8. | Davide Rigon | Scuderia Coloni | 1:30.347 | +0.472 | 21 |
9. | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 1:30.364 | +0.489 | 24 |
10. | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:30.430 | +0.555 | 19 |
11. | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:30.450 | +0.575 | 29 |
12. | Oliver Turvey | Carlin | 1:30.623 | +0.748 | 21 |
13. | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:30.671 | +0.796 | 19 |
14. | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:30.760 | +0.885 | 24 |
15. | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:30.857 | +0.982 | 22 |
16. | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 1:30.866 | +0.991 | 26 |
17. | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 1:30.900 | +1.025 | 25 |
18. | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:30.924 | +1.049 | 19 |
19. | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | 1:30.959 | +1.084 | 18 |
20. | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:30.982 | +1.107 | 26 |
21. | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:31.070 | +1.195 | 27 |
22. | Josef Kral | Arden International | 1:31.263 | +1.388 | 17 |
23. | Pal Varhaug | Dams | 1:31.322 | +1.447 | 20 |
24. | Kevin Mirocha | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:31.531 | +1.656 | 21 |
25. | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:31.854 | +1.979 | 21 |
26. | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:32.162 | +2.287 | 18 |
Afternoon session times:
Driver | Team | Laptime | Gap | Laps | |
1. | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | 1:29.718 | 23 | |
2. | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | 1:29.743 | +0.025 | 19 |
3. | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:29.912 | +0.194 | 18 |
4. | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:30.262 | +0.544 | 28 |
5. | Romain Grosjean | Dams | 1:30.371 | +0.653 | 25 |
6. | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 1:30.402 | +0.684 | 14 |
7. | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 1:30.544 | +0.826 | 28 |
8. | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:30.602 | +0.884 | 18 |
9. | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:30.780 | +1.062 | 21 |
10. | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 1:30.807 | +1.089 | 19 |
11. | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:30.825 | +1.107 | 23 |
12. | Pal Varhaug | Dams | 1:30.956 | +1.238 | 28 |
13. | Oliver Turvey | Carlin | 1:30.956 | +1.238 | 23 |
14. | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:30.964 | +1.246 | 19 |
15. | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1:30.982 | +1.264 | 25 |
16. | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:31.125 | +1.407 | 20 |
17. | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Engineering | 1:31.248 | +1.530 | 20 |
18. | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:31.252 | +1.534 | 20 |
19. | Kevin Mirocha | Ocean Racing Engineering | 1:31.311 | +1.593 | 20 |
20. | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:31.342 | +1.624 | 19 |
21. | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 1:31.639 | +1.921 | 19 |
22. | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:31.766 | +2.048 | 29 |
23. | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:31.921 | +2.203 | 31 |
24. | Josef Kral | Arden International | 1:32.366 | +2.648 | 25 |
25. | Davide Rigon | Scuderia Coloni | 1:32.900 | +3.182 | 13 |
26. | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:33.747 | +4.029 | 35 |