DPR driver sets fastest laptime of post season test in Abu Dhabi
The Yas Marina Circuit hosted the fourth and last post season test day today marking the end of the 2010 campaign, but also the last run of the GP2/08 car after three thrilling seasons that crowned Italian Giorgio Pantano, German Nico Hülkenberg and Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado. In three years, teams and drivers have covered 63.500 kilometres on Bridgestone tyres. Luiz Razia and Adrian Zaugg (still struggling with a sore wrist following a collision in the last round of the 2010 season in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago) joined the field today at Barwa Addax and Trident while James Jakes, Pal Varhaug, Jan Charouz and Charles Pic re-entered the drivers' list respectively at Super Nova, Dams and Rapax.
The session opened under clear blue skies and in warm temperatures. Fastest in the first day's morning session and one of the quickest men on track since then, Michael Herck at DPR was the man to beat today: the Romanian set the quickest laptime of the morning session ahead of Josef Kral at iSport. In his second day of testing, Coloni's rookie Adrian Quaife-Hobbs clocked in the third fastest laptime ahead of two other newcomers, DPR's Kevin Ceccon and ART's Esteban Gutierrez.
Two red flags briefly interrupted the session, one caused by Arden's Rio Haryanto after the young Indonesian jumped on a curve, damaging his car and putting an early end to his day. After the break and in rising temperatures, the final afternoon session saw this week's strongest man Fabio Leimer at Rapax claim the top spot for most of the three-hour run with Herck progressively improving. With twenty minutes left on the clock, Herck set an impressive time of a 1:47.138 - the best laptime of all four days of testing. Leimer had to settle for second best today after having dominated on Day 2 and Day 3. At the wheel of an iSport car, Josef Kral moved up to P3 in the final thirty minutes of the session while Alexander Rossi at Racing Engineering finished fourth and best rookie of the day. This concludes the post season testing of 2010.
A total of 39 drivers took part of the four day tests It's time for everyone to turn a new leaf and look ahead: in a few weeks, 2011 will bring a new car, new faces and new challenges. Next stop: pre-season tests on February 2-3 and 6-7 which will be held again at Yas Marina Circuit before the opening round of the fourth GP2 Asia Series in Abu Dhabi. Day 4 -
Morning session
Driver Team Time Laps
1. Michael Herck DPR 1:47.909 31 2. Josef Kral iSport International 1:47.941 24 3. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Scuderia Coloni 1:47.961 23 4. Kevin Ceccon DPR 1:48.169 28 5. Esteban Gutierrez ART Grand Prix 1:48.171 25 6. Marcus Ericsson iSport International 1:48.229 23 7. Brendon Hartley Ocean Racing Technology 1:48.322 30 8. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:48.340 27 9. Luiz Razia Barwa Addax Team 1:48.549 32 10. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident Racing 1:48.603 31 11. Sam Bird Super Nova Racing 1:48.622 23 12. Roberto Merhi Barwa Addax Team 1:48.643 21 13. Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 1:48.764 24 14. Alexander Sims Racing Engineering 1:48.793 28 15. Karun Chandhok Scuderia Coloni 1:48.903 20 16. Oliver Turvey Arden International 1:49.197 9 17. Charles Pic Rapax 1:49.205 23 18. Rio Haryanto Arden International 1:49.397 24 19. Jolyon Palmer ART Grand Prix 1:49.491 32 20 Jan Charouz Dams 1:49.894 27 21. James Jakes Super Nova Racing 1:50.027 17 22. Pal Varhaug Dams 1:50.113 23 23. Armaan Ebrahim Ocean Racing Technology 1:50.247 24 24. Fabio Leimer* Rapax -- --
*Morning times deleted - Driver found underweight
Day 4 - Afternoon session
Driver Team Time Laps* 1. Michael Herck DPR 1:47.138 2. Fabio Leimer Rapax 1:47.158 3. Josef Kral iSport International 1:47.227 4. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:47.280 5. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident Racing 1:47.425 6. Brendon Hartley Ocean Racing Technology 1:47.456 7. Luiz Razia Barwa Addax Team 1:47.667 8. Alexander Sims Racing Engineering 1:47.744 9. Roberto Merhi Barwa Addax Team 1:47.779 10. Charles Pic Rapax 1:47.797 11. Marcus Ericsson iSport International 1:47.820 12. Oliver Turvey Arden International 1:47.884 13. Kevin Ceccon DPR 1:47.888 14. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Scuderia Coloni 1:47.925 15. Pal Varhaug Dams 1:48.156 16. Sam Bird Super Nova Racing 1:48.239 17. Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 1:48.362 18. Karun Chandhok Scuderia Coloni 1:48.535 19. James Jakes Super Nova Racing 1:48.761 20 Jolyon Palmer ART Grand Prix 1:48.998 21. Jan Charouz Dams 1:49.430 22. Armaan Ebrahim Ocean Racing Technology 1:49.537 23. Esteban Gutierrez ART Grand Prix 1:49.978
*Laps numbers not available
