DAMS driver set the quickest laptime of Day 1 GP2 Asia Series pre-season test
 
Today marked the beginning of GP2 Asia Series pre-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi with all thirteen teams – including newcomers Carlin and Team AirAsia. The twenty-six drivers had their first taste of the new GP2/11 car – the third generation machine since the Series’ inception- and of the Pirelli tires.
 
The session opened under blue skies and on a very dusty track following yesterday’s sandstorm, and with strong winds sweeping every curb and straight of the 5.555km long layout. It was thus a slow morning with drivers going out mainly for installation laps. Davide Valsecchi at the wheel of the Team AirAsia car was the first one to take to the track with teammate Luiz Razia in tow. The main focus of the first three hours for the teams was to gather valuable data, rather than setting fast laptimes. It was GP3 Series graduate Stefano Coletti at Trident Racing who set the pace ahead of Carlin’s Max Chilton and Arden’s Rodolfo Gonzalez. But the session was cut short, thirty minutes before the scheduled time after it was decided that more time was needed to clean the track before the afternoon session.
 
The track conditions became a bit trickier as the afternoon session opened with raindrops dampening the track. During the first hour, only eight cars took to the track with Jules Bianchi at Lotus ART leading Coloni’s Michael Herck and DAMS’ Romain Grosjean. As the track dried down, the laptimes dropped slowly but surely, with Sam Bird at iSport International moving up to the top of the timesheet ahead of Grosjean.
 
The session was extended by one hour and drivers went out for their runs. Sophomore Bianchi went quicker than his countryman, but not for long as the DAMS ace improved the best laptime by four tenths. In the last hour, Bianchi reclaimed top spot in a 1:50.212- bettering Grosjean’s time by... four tenths. Soon enough, Addax’s Charles Pic joined in the battle and slipped intp P2, two tenths behind the Lotus ART youngster, while Giedo van der Garde moved up to P4 ahead of Chilton.
 
With thirty minutes left on the clock, Coletti pushed hard to make his way up to P2 with Herck moving up to P4 ahead of Grosjean and GP3 Series Champion Esteban Gutierrez. Addax’s van der Garde climbed into P3 in the dying minutes of the session, but Grosjean moved back to P2, a shy tenth away from Bianchi. In a very last effort, the DAMS racer became the only driver who went under 1m50s setting a best laptime of 1:49.768 on the chequered flag.
 
The session will continue tomorrow at 9am local time.


 
 
 
 
 
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    Ardent 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