Filippi Quickest In First Auto GP Test In Barcelona

Luca Filippi recorded the fastest time on the first official test day of the 2011 Auto GP season, at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

The Italian, fresh from filling in for Coloni at the GP2 Asia round at Imola, tested for TP Formula in the morning before switching to Super Nova in the afternoon. After ending the morning session in third position, it was with the British team in the afternoon when Filippi recorded the day's benchmark time of 1m32.676. This was nearly half a second quicker than anybody else could manage.

Formula Renault graduate Giovanni Venturini topped the timesheets in the morning session, the Durango driver setting a time which was good enough to leave him second behind Filippi at the end of the day. Fellow rookie Kevin Ceccon was second quickest in the afternoon session for Ombra Racing, third overall.

Adrian Zaugg was second quickest behind Venturini in the morning for Super Nova, leaving the South African fourth overall by the end of the day. Jon Lancaster was fifth quickest on his Auto GP debut, driving for Campos Racing, just quicker than teammate Marco Barba.

Adrien Tambay was the quickest of the DAMS drivers, ahead of Lazarus's Fabrizio Crestani and another DAMS driver, Rio Haryanto. The second Lazarus car of Fabio Onidi ended the day eleventh overall, ahead of rookies Bruno Mendez and Samuele Buttarelli. Two other newcomers were Chris van der Drift, who took over from Filippi at TP Formula, and Sergei Afanasiev at DAMS. Giuseppe Cipriani rounded out the times for Durango.

Combined morning and afternoon times