Marcus Ericsson topped the timesheets on the first day of the second post-season GP2 test at Jerez, on his first day driving for DAMS.
The Swede, who has raced in the category for the past three seasons, was fourth fastest in the morning session with the team that has run the last two drivers’ champions. Felipe Nasr set the pace in a session that began in foggy conditions that necessitated a red flag.
The Brazilian, who raced for DAMS in his rookie campaign in 2012, was driving for Carlin for the second consecutive test, and looks set to line-up with the British squad next season having won the British F3 title with them in 2011.
Second quickest was Stephane Richelmi with his 2012 team Trident Racing and third was fellow Monegasque driver Stefano Coletti, already signed to race with Rapax next year. Behind Ericsson in fifth was Johnny Cecotto in his first morning with Carlin, while Fabio Onidi was sixth for Coloni.
GP3 champion Mitch Evans was seventh for Arden ahead of Rio Haryanto (DAMS), Kevin Giovesi (Lazarus) and Alexander Sims, who was running with Addax having been largely out of single-seater competition for the past 12 months.
Ericsson was the only man during the afternoon who could better Nasr’s benchmark. Sims finished up the session in P2 ahead of Giovesi and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, testing for Arden International. Richelmi was fifth with Onidi again sixth, Cecotto seventh and Coletti eighth. The top ten was completed by Nasr and Haryanto.
Amongst the driver changes for the second and final day are Ericsson switching to Coloni, Cecotto to Arden, Evans and Richelmi to DAMS and Haryanto moving to Lotus.
