The first post-season test of the 2011 GP2 Series was rounded out this week at Jerez De La Frontera. In the two days spent at the Spanish racetrack, Trident Racing collected a really positive feedback as the team planned and conducted an highly-valuable amount of work.
The three drivers that shared the team's two rides, Sam Bird, Josef Kral and Julian Leal, successfully managed to find their way into the top-10, showing a good speed potential from the cars which emerged in any condition and with all the different driving styles. On Day 1, Josef Kral and Julian Leal hit the track. The Colombian was slowed down on the afternoon by mechanical issues that limited his track time, but he eventually clocked some really positive laptimes. Kral stayed constantly at the top of the charts, and confirmed a great level of integration with the car and team.
In the closing day, Leal was then paired by Sam Bird, and the British racer confirmed the great things seen from both a speed perspective and an handling point of view. Bird and Leal went extremely fast in the afternoon segment, ending up in 2nd and 3rd place.
For Trident Racing and the whole GP2 Series people, post-season testing will go back underway at Barcelona, where the cars will go on-track on the next October the 19th and 20th.
Sam Bird
"When I exited the pits, after two corners I immediately realized that I really had good grips with the car, as confirmed not much later by the timesheets. I really got along very well with the team, and i also think they experienced a good relation with me. I've been impressed by several aspects today, and I can assure that if Trident Racing will find the right driver pairing, they'll definitely aiming to battle for the 2011 championship".
Josef Kral
"It's been a really positive experience. We started our work with a basic set-up which proved really good from the start. I really liked the way the car adapted to my driving style each time we worked on the set-up. We completed a really demanding work schedule, and the only regret for me is not to have completed a "perfect lap" to display the full speed potential of the car and team. I seen that the team managed to get good results on day-2 too, and I'm not surprised because the work had already started to pay off."
Julian Leal
“My first day of testing hasn't been very lucky, because I've been slowed down by engine and gearbox issues. Today we finally managed to put everything together, we used our full potential with a really good feedback. I'm sorry for having ended up spinning in the closing laps of the second session, because I had already gone down some tenths of a second in that lap but I just wanted more! All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how this test ended both for the speed showed and for the relation with the team's engineers.
DAY 1
Josef Kral
Session 1 - 9th 1’27”909 (20 laps)
Session 2 - 5th 1’28”194 (26 laps)
Julian Leal
Session 1 - 19th 1:28.709 (24 laps)
Session 2 - 24th 1:29.823 (08 laps)
DAY 2
Sam Bird
Session 1 - 8th 1:27.127 (12 laps)
Session 2 - 2rd 1:27.740 (21 laps)
Julian Leal
Session 1 - 10th 1’27”211 (39 laps)
Session 2 - 3rd 1’27”924 (23 laps)
