UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > GP2 Testing 6-8 OCtober 2009

Three day test at Jerez

Tuesday 6th October 2009

As winter testing begins this week in Jerez, the GP2 Paddock welcomes many new names and new faces for a first three-day session. A total of ten newcomers entered today’s entry list namely Christian Vietoris, Max Chilton, Alexander Rossi, Esteban Gutierrez, Jules Bianchi, Edoardo Piscopo, Francesco Castellacci, Philip Eng, Josef Kral and Victor Garcia. Barwa Addax Team, 2009 GP2 Series champions ART Grand Prix and Ocean Racing Technology worked with a line-up solely composed of newcomers.
On a dry track and under blue skies, Davide Valsecchi set the pace this morning on new tyres at the wheel of Party Poker Racing.com Scuderia Coloni in a 1:26:408, three tenths faster than Roldan Rodriguez at Fat Burner Racing Engineering. Newcomer Jules Bianchi completed the Top three with ART Grand Prix.
The session was briefly red flagged twice when another newcomer, Max Chilton, ran off track in the last corner and broke his front wing early in the session. Then, rookie Oliver Turvey stopped on the track eight minutes before the chequered flag.

In the afternoon, as the temperature rose, it was Frenchman Bianchi who signed the quickest laptime in a 1:26.919, two hundredth away from Jérôme d’Ambrosio at the wheel of an iSport International car. Diego Nunes with Fat Burner Racing Engineering completed the Top three ahead his teammate of the day Rodriguez who was already one of the fastest man on track this morning. The top ten ran within one second.

Once again, the session was Red flagged, first as Rodolfo Gonzalez at Telmex Arden span at the chicane and then two more times, courtesy of Edoardo Piscopo with Trident Racing. With twenty minutes left on the clock, the Italian lost control of his machine in the last corner and ran into the tyre wall. The damages on the barrier prevented the session from restarting before the chequered.

Wednesday 7th October 2009

This morning’s cooler temperatures improved both track conditions and laptimes in Jerez de la Frontera. The second day of GP2 Series winter testing saw a shuffle on the grid as only nine drivers ran in the same car as they did yesterday, namely Oliver Turvey (iSport), Luiz Razia (Piquet GP), Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden), Ricardo Teixeira and James Jakes (Super Nova), Sam Bird (DAMS), Francesco Castellacci (Durango), Philip Eng (Ocean Racing) and Michael Herck (DPR).

Ten new racers entered the entry list for today’s session with some names well-known to the GP2 circus (Kamui Kobayashi, Dani Clos and Alberto Valerio) and some rookies (Marcus Ericsson, Sten Pentus, Jan Charouz, Filip Salaquarda, William Bratt, Fabio Leimer and Vladimir Arabadzhiev).

But it was the more experienced drivers who set the pace this morning, lead by Giedo van der Garde at Barwa Addax Team clocking in the best laptime of a 1:25.291 and over a tenth clear of Valerio driving for Party Poker Racing.com SC. Behind the pair, Kobayashi – freshly back from running with Toyota F1 in Suzuka last Friday during Formula One Practice sessions 1 and 2, at the wheel of Fat Burner Racing Engineering was also in good form and completed the Top three.

Once again, the temperature rose in Spain in the afternoon and this morning’s laptimes could not be improved. In a trouble free session, Kobayashi at Racing Engineering topped the times two tenths ahead of Jérôme d’Ambrosio who joined ART Grand Prix today and five tenths clear of this morning’s quickest man on track van der Garde. The Dutch tops the combined times for the day.

With a laptime of a 1:25.575 set this morning, German Christian Vietoris at DAMS was the fastest rookie of the day.

The three-day test session will conclude tomorrow with five times Rallye World Champion Sébastien Loeb joining DPR.

Thurday 8th October 2009

After two sunny days in Jerez, the third and last day started on wet conditions as raindrops continuously fell onto the Spanish track for most of the three-hour morning session. Five new drivers joined the field today namely 2008 GP2 runner-up Bruno Senna returning to iSport, Chris van der Drift driving for Piquet GP, Edoardo Mortara at Telmex Arden, newcomer Jon Lancaster joining DAMS and the much anticipated five times Rallye World Champion Sébastien Loeb at DPR.

In difficult track conditions, the session was briefly interrupted twice, first by Fabio Onidi at Trident following mechanical gremlins and then after Marco Bonanomi (Party Poker Racing.com SC) and van der Drift simultaneously span and stopped at two different parts of the circuit.

In a drying session, the drivers’ laptimes improved notably towards its latest stages and it was both Fat Burner Racing Engineering racers, Dani Clos leading Jérôme d’Ambrosio, who claimed the top spot ahead of Luiz Razia driving with Barwa Addax today.

Will Bratt (Party Poker Racing.com SC) finished the morning first rookie although newcomer Alexander Rossi at DAMS was fastest in wet conditions until fifteen minutes before the chequered flag a hydraulic pump problem ruined the American’s efforts.

The sun eventually made an appearance shortly before the start of the afternoon session. However, although the track conditions seemed less tricky than in the morning, the session was still interspersed by six red flags, including one following a shunt from Mortara who lost control of his car at Turn 9 and forcing the Italian to prematurely end his testing day.

The surprise of the day came from newcomer Marcus Ericsson who, at the wheel of the ART car, signed the best laptime of the day in a 1:25.970. Clos, d’Ambrosio and Razia confirmed their good form again in the Top five while another impressive newcomer, Swiss Fabio Leimer at Ocean Racing, found his way to third place.

This concludes GP2 testing in Spain. Next test session will take place in Le Castellet on November 10, 11 and 12.

In the meantime, the GP2 teams - minus Racing Engineering, will fly to Abu Dhabi where they will be joined by Meritus for the opening of the third GP2 Asia season. A pre-season test session will take place on October 23-24 at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Written: Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:39:37