March 16th 2007

Afternoon

It was another close-run thing, but Andreas Zuber has again topped the timesheets of a GP2 series test session. And with this afternoon's running acting as the final opportunity for the drivers to run their cars before the season opener in Bahrain, Andy's dominance will have marked him out as a clear championship hope. 

As with Day 1 of the test, Andy was followed by a Super Nova driver, although this afternoon it was Mike Conway who was breathing down his neck and forming the meat in an iSport sandwich, as Glock nailed third position once again. Mike's team-mate Luca Filippi completed the party however, netting the fourth quickest lap of the afternoon. 

Pastor Maldonado continued his impressive form for Trident in fifth, with Andy Soucek sixth for Dams, ahead of Javier Villa, Lucas di Grassi, Giorgio Pantano and Antonio Pizzonia. 

The times were once again extremely close, as all drivers lapped within 1.3 seconds of Zuber's test topping time. Roldan and Xandi both look in good shape for the opener in Bahrain.

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Andreas Zuber	Isport International	1:09.713	21
2	Mike Conway	Super Nova International	1:09.860	42
3	Timo Glock	Isport International	1:09.923	58
4	Luca Filippi	Super Nova International	1:10.032	47
5	Pastor Maldonado	Trident Racing	1:10.092	54
6	Andy Soucek	DPR	1:10.161	36
7	Javier Villa	Racing Engineering	1:10.164	54
8	Lucas Di Grassi	Art Grand Prix	1:10.177	54
9	Giorgio Pantano	Campos Grand Prix	1:10.182	39
10	Antonio Pizzonia	Petrol Ofisi FMS	1:10.336	42
11	Roldan Rodriguez	Minardi Piquet Sports	1:10.401	37
12	Nicolas Lapierre	DAMS	1:10.406	56
13	Borja Garcia	Durango	1:10.433	24
14	Kohei Hirate	Trident Racing	1:10.479	43
15	Alexandre Negrao	Minardi Piquet Sports	1:10.500	46
16	Sakon Yamamoto	BCN Competicion	1:10.524	50
17	Bruno Senna	Arden International	1:10.568	44
18	Christian Bakkerud	DPR	1:10.593	36
19	Sergio Jimenez	Racing Engineering	1:10.628	54
20	Ricardo Risatti	BCN Competicion	1:10.665	45
21	Vitaly Petrov	Campos Grand Prix	1:10.887	42
22	Jason Tahinci	Petrol Ofisi FMS	1:10.956	33
23	Karun Chandhok	Durango	1:10.976	35
24	Adrian Zaugg	Arden International	1:11.079	40

Morning

Lucas di Grassi has topped the morning session of the final pre-season test of the 2007 season. The ART Grand Prix driver broke the iSport dominance of the first day to head the other 23 drivers with a lap of 1:10.054 around the new 2D-b track solution. 

Javier Villa was an impressive second for Racing Engineering, just one tenth of a second shy of the Brazilian's best, with Mike Conway third and his Super Nova team-mate Luca Filippi fourth. 

With Michael Ammermuller joining Kazuki Nakajima on F1 duty in Australia, there were only 24 runners this morning. Quite amazingly, the difference between the top and bottom time of the first session was just 1.1 seconds. With today acting as the final test before the season kicks off in Bahrain in a few weeks' time, the omens are already looking good for an incredibly close season. 

A big improvement from the Minardi Piquet boys. Great to see them so close!

1	Lucas Di Grassi	Art Grand Prix	1:10.054	41
2	Javier Villa	Racing Engineering	1:10.156	39
3	Mike Conway	Super Nova Int.	1:10.163	49
4	Luca Filippi	Super Nova Int.	1:10.255	48
5	Giorgio Pantano	Campos Grand Prix	1:10.272	45
6	Andreas Zuber	Isport International	1:10.293	15
7	Timo Glock	Isport International	1:10.325	38
8	Alexandre Negrao	Minardi Piquet Sports	1:10.411	54
9	Roldan Rodriguez	Minardi Piquet Sports	1:10.462	46
10	Borja Garcia	Durango	1:10.499	39
11	Ricardo Risatti	BCN Competicion	1:10.517	68
12	Bruno Senna	Arden International	1:10.525	68
13	Sergio Jimenez	Racing Engineering	1:10.611	49
14	Adrian Zaugg	Arden International	1:10.619	42
15	Pastor Maldonado	Trident Racing	1:10.653	48
16	Sakon Yamamoto	BCN Competicion	1:10.677	55
17	Karun Chandhok	Durango	1:10.766	55
18	Andy Soucek	DPR	1:10.850	41
19	Nicolas Lapierre	DAMS	1:10.872	56
20	Jason Tahinci	Petrol Ofisi FMS	1:10.920	39
21	Kohei Hirate	Trident Racing	1:10.980	38
22	Vitaly Petrov	Campos Grand Prix	1:11.120	52
23	Antonio Pizzonia	Petrol Ofisi FMS	1:11.129	35
24	Christian Bakkerud	DPR	1:11.166	38

 

March 15th 2007

Andy Zuber has picked up from the point from which he finished in Barcelona last week by topping this morning's testing times at Circuit Paul Ricard as the final pre-season test of 2007 got underway. 

Andy's time of 1:13.466 was set early on in the session, as the usual final flurry of track activity in the final half hour failed to materialise, with teams now working on honig their set-ups rather than going for out and out quick laps. Luca Filippi had a great morning at the office, setting the second quickest lap for Super Nova, showing once again the dark horse status the team is starting to pick up for 2007. Andy's iSport team-mate Timo Glock was third quickest, just four tenths off top slot.                                                  Javier Villa continued to show the improvement he has made over the winter with the fourth fastest time for Racing Engineering, while Lucas di Grassi was the top placed ART driver in fifth. Mike Conway made it a great morning for Super Nova with the sixth fastest lap, ahead of Maldonado, Garcia, Pantano and Lapierre. 

Minardi Piquet's Negrao and Rodriguez were 13th and 14th respectively.  There were only 25 runners today as Kazuki Nakajima was called up at the last minute by the Williams F1 team to take part in the Australian Grand Prix this weekend as their third driver. 

Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Andreas Zuber	Isport International	1:13.466	33
2	Luca Filippi	Super Nova International	1:13.839	38
3	Timo Glock	Isport International	1:13.885	22
4	Javier villa	Racing Engineering	1:13.924	30
5	Lucas Di Grassi	Art Grand Prix	1:13.981	51
6	Mike Conway	Super Nova International	1:14.000	36
7	Pastor Maldonado	Trident Racing	1:14.070	28
8	Borja Garcia	Durango	1:14.072	21
9	Giorgio Pantano	Campos Grand Prix	1:14.078	31
10	Nicolas Lapierre	DAMS	1:14.094	33
11	Michael Ammermuller	Art Grand Prix	1:14.106	35
12	Karun Chandhok	Durango	1:14.155	35
13	Alexandre Negrao	Minardi Piquet Sports	1:14.218	29
14	Roldan Rodriguez	Minardi Piquet Sports	1:14.230	44
15	Antonio Pizzonia	Petrol Ofisi FMS	1:14.230	26
16	Kohei Hirate	Trident Racing	1:14.253	35
17	Jason Tahinci	Petrol Ofisi FMS	1:14.266	26
18	Ricardo Risatti	BCN Competicion	1:14.322	50
19	Christian Bakkerud	DPR	1:14.443	38
20	Adrian Zaugg	Arden International	1:14.456	33
21	Andy Soucek	DPR	1:14.511	30
22	Vitaly Petrov	Campos Grand Prix	1:14.693	34
23	Sakon Yamamoto	BCN Competicion	1:14.739	25
24	Bruno Senna	Arden International	1:14.760	26
25	Sergio Jimenez	Racing Engineering	1:15.003	41

 

 

March 14th 2007

Paul Ricard is again the venue for GP2 testing March 15/16. The final test before the season commences. This will be the last occasion in order to carry out several of the technical programs in order to collect fundamental information on the set-up of the cars and the tires by Bridgestone. Also both Xandi Negrao and Roldan Rodriguez will concentrate themselves, with the engineers, on simulations of Races and  pit-stops. The last test in Barcelona showed the promise we have to fight for podiums this season. Lets hope for a very productive test.