GP2 Series

Rossi Fastest On Day Two Of Barcelona Test

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Alexander Rossi - Photo Credit: www.octanephotos.co.uk

Alexander Rossi finished the second day of the post-season GP2 test at Barcelona on the top of the pile.

The Caterham ace is set to switch full-time to the series next year, and finished on top at the end of the day with a time of 1m31.173s. That was more than a second off the Tuesday benchmark from Luca Filippi, after Wednesday’s running began on a soaking wet Circuit de Catalunya.

It was rookie Facundo Regalia who posted the fastest time in those conditions with a 1m51.799, having made the switch from iSport to Racing Engineering for the second day of the test. Sergio Canamasas was second after joining up with Lotus GP, with Rossi third. Nigel Melker took fourth having also moved across to Racing Engineering, with fellow Dutchman Daniel de Jong in P5.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs took sixth for Addax, seven thousandths of a second ahead of his Auto GP rival Pal Varhaug (iSport). Arthur Pic took eighth for DAMS ahead of Rapax pairing Daniel Juncadella and Stefano Coletti. Jake Rosenzweig was 11th for Addax, ahead of iSport’s Jolyon Palmer and Carlin duo Rio Haryanto and Felipe Nasr.

Lucas Foresti was 15th ahead of series debutant Sergey Sirotkin ahead of the Lazarus drivers Kevin Giovesi and Rene Binder – the latter having twice caused a red flag after spinning in the tricky conditions. Stephane Richelmi was 19th after rejoining his 2012 team Trident, with Simon Trummer 20th for Arden and Eddie Cheever Jr 21st on his first morning with Coloni. Julian Leal was 22nd ahead of GP3 graduates Mitch Evans and Daniel Abt, who was the slowest of those to set a time after his Lotus car developed a technical issue early on.

Sergio Canamasas - Photo Credit: www.octanephotos.co.uk

Pushing the limits to impress Lotus, Canamasas recovered from this to finish the wet morning session in P2 – Photo Credit: www.octanephotos.co.uk

The track dried out over the course of the afternoon session, with Rossi finished up nearly four tenths clear of second-placed Quaife-Hobbs. Melker was third ahead of Trummer, Abt, Coletti and Haryanto as GP3 graduates filled the top seven spots.

Canamasas broke that pattern in eighth ahead of fellow Spaniard Juncadella, while Giovesi continued a promising GP2 debut with the tenth best time. De Jong was 11th ahead of Evans and iSport teammates Palmer and Varhaug – the Norwegian finishing the day in the barriers at turn four. Rosenzweig, Richelmi, Nasr and Regalia were next, with Pic and Binder completing the top 20.

Leal, Cheever, Sirotkin and Foresti rounded out those to set a time. Ocean Racing Technology drivers Kevin Ceccon and Ramon Pineiro once again did little more than installation laps, with neither setting a time in either session.

The second and final post-season test takes place at Jerez in three weeks’ time.

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Peter joined the TCF team in September 2010 and covers GP2 and GP3 along with WTCC and Formula Two. You can find him on twitter at @PeteAllen_
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