Rapax veteran quickest in opening day of first 2010 collective test session in Le Castellet

The  sixth  season  of  the  GP2  Series  kicked  off  yesterday  at  Paul  Ricard  with  a  three-day  official test session  on  a  3D  configuration  track.  This  week,  all  twenty  four  cars  will  be  using  Bridgestone medium compounds for the first two days and will conclude their tests on soft tyres. It  was  a  slow  morning  session  in  Le  Castellet. 

An  unstopping  drizzle  made  the  track  conditions quite tricky for the drivers, and the teams had no other choice but to use wet tyres throughout the three-hour  session,  with  the  exception  of  Trident’s newest addition Johnny Cecotto who dared to try on slicks in the very last stages of the morning session as the track got a bit dryer.

The young Venezuelan ended on the top spot, two and half seconds clear from Coloni’s Alberto Valerio.

 Five drivers  chose  to  do  only  one  installation  lap:  iSport’s  pair  Davide  Valsecchi  and  Oliver  Turvey, Rapax duo Pastor Maldonado and Luiz Razia, and DPR Michael Herck. A  more  clement  weather  greeted  the  GP2  field  at  the  start  of  the  afternoon  session  shortly  red flagged four times. A dry track saw the laptimes improve significantly with all drivers in slick tyres.

Confirmed yesterday as part of Rapax line-up, Pastor Maldonado claimed the top spot in the last ten minutes of the session clocking in a time of a 1:12.987. The Venezuelan was closely followed by rookie Jules Bianchi at ART and sophomore Giedo van der Garde at Barwa Addax. The test session will continue today at 9am local time with a similar entry list.