Romain Grosjean set the fastest time on the first day of GP2 Asia pre-season testing at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit.
The test is the first proper chance for teams and drivers to try out the new GP2/11 car with Pirelli tyres, following the shakedown test run at Paul Ricard at the end of last year.
Following a sandstorm yesterday the circuit was very dusty. This limited the teams to only a handful of laps during the morning session, most focussing on installation laps. Trident Racing's Stefano Coletti set the quickest time of the morning, with a 1m54.161 the best of his eight laps. The session was cut short by 30 minutes to allow for time to clean the circuit before the afternoon running.
The conditions would not be straightforward in the afternoon either though, as the session began with light rain. Once the track had dried lap times began to improve. It was Dams driver Grosjean, recently announced as a third driver for the Renault Formula 1 team, who posted the quickest time of 1m49.768, right at the end of the session.
Grosjean had been trading fastest times with fellow Frenchman Jules Bianchi throughout the afternoon, the ART driver finishing the day second fastest. Coletti maintained his place towards the top of the leaderboard by ending up third. The Addax pairing of Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic rounded out the top five.
Morning Session
| Driver | Team | Laptime | Laps | |
| 1. | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:54.161 | 8 |
| 2. | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:54.810 | 5 |
| 3. | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:55.347 | 8 |
| 4. | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:55.496 | 5 |
| 5. | Nathanael Berthon | Racing Engineering | 1:55.803 | 6 |
| 6. | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:56.654 | 7 |
| 7. | Oliver Turvey | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:57.134 | 6 |
| 8. | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:57.408 | 5 |
| 9. | Andrea Caldarelli | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:58.195 | 7 |
| 10. | Pal Varhaug | Dams | 1:59.827 | 8 |
| 11. | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 2:00.373 | 4 |
| 12. | James Jakes | Scuderia Coloni | 2:01.180 | 3 |
| 13. | Johnny Cecotto | Super Nova Racing | 2:02.287 | 5 |
| 14. | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 2:07.039 | 4 |
| 15. | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 2:19.672 | 10 |
| 16. | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | — | 2 |
| 17. | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | — | 1 |
| 18. | Sam Bird | iSport International | — | 1 |
| 19. | Josef Kral | Arden International | — | 1 |
| 20. | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | — | 1 |
| 21. | Romain Grosjean | Dams | — | 1 |
| 22. | Julian Leal | Rapax | — | 1 |
| 23. | Mikhail Aleshin | Carlin | — | 1 |
| 24. | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | — | 1 |
| 25. | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | — | 0 |
| 26. | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | — | 0 |
Afternoon Session
| Driver | Team | Laptime | Laps | |
| 1. | Romain Grosjean | Dams | 1:49.768 | 39 |
| 2. | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:50.212 | 30 |
| 3. | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:50.388 | 9 |
| 4. | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:50.474 | 21 |
| 5. | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:50.477 | 20 |
| 6. | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:50.526 | 29 |
| 7. | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:50.580 | 16 |
| 8. | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 1:50.727 | 31 |
| 9. | Josef Kral | Arden International | 1:50.820 | 17 |
| 10. | Oliver Turvey | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:50.992 | 19 |
| 11. | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | 1:51.004 | 21 |
| 12. | Nathanael Berthon | Racing Engineering | 1:51.046 | 22 |
| 13. | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:51.111 | 17 |
| 14. | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:51.127 | 19 |
| 15. | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:51.169 | 29 |
| 16. | Pal Varhaug | Dams | 1:51.362 | 30 |
| 17. | Andrea Caldarelli | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:51.396 | 26 |
| 18. | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 1:51.505 | 32 |
| 19. | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 1:51.636 | 21 |
| 20. | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1:51.662 | 25 |
| 21. | Mikhail Aleshin | Carlin | 1:51.765 | 17 |
| 22. | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:52.021 | 23 |
| 23. | Johnny Cecotto | Super Nova Racing | 1:52.206 | 30 |
| 24. | James Jakes | Scuderia Coloni | 1:52.587 | 9 |
| 25. | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:52.616 | 4 |
| 26. | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 2:05.096 | 21 |
