GP2 Winter Test (Yas Marina, November 24th)

On this, the second day of GP2 winter testing, Swiss driver Fabio Leimer topped both the morning and afternoon sessions at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit. 

The Rapax driver registered his quickest times, despite only completing thirty-two laps over the course of the day. It is a promising sign for Leimer. After a difficult début season in the category, the 21-year-old will be hoping that his second year garners brighter results.
By the drop of the chequered flag, Leimer headed veteran Luca Filippi in the morning (0.2 of-a-second faster) and GP2 returnee Josef Kral in the afternoon. Král also recorded a quick time in the morning – his fastest time was only just shy of fellow Addax runner Charles Pic. Regardless of set-ups and fuel loads (etc), these sessions can also be valuable confidence boosters.

For the afternoon, Filippi fell to 7th in the timings; however their show of single lap pace today and yesterday may also be a boost to the Scuderia Coloni squad, who showed well yesterday with James Jakes.
Jakes’ himself registered the 16th and 11th quickest times in the morning and afternoon respectively for the Spanish squad, Racing Engineering; although the Briton was slower than rookie team mate Andrea Caldarelli in both sessions.

Fellow rookie Joylon Palmer also had a good morning, before dropping down the order somewhat. The son of former-F1 racer, Jonathan, tested with iSport today alongside Roberto Mehri. Fastest rookie of the day was Esteban Gutierrez – the Mexican ran with ART Grand Prix today, securing 5th in both sessions.

Michael Herck didn’t have as good a day today as he did yesterday; however that did not stop the Romanian setting some vaguely competitive times in his DPR machine. Once again Camilo Zurcher had a difficult day– the 30-year-old only completed a single lap in the morning, but did not run at all during the afternoon session.

Day 2; Morning times
Pos Driver              Team                  Time      Laps
 1. Fabio Leimer        Rapax                 1m47.867s   16
 2. Luca Filippi        Coloni                1m48.054s   32
 3. Charles Pic         Addax                 1m48.141s   19
 4. Josef Kral          Addax                 1m48.171s   19
 5. Esteban Gutierrez   ART                   1m48.183s   28
 6. Sam Bird            DAMS                  1m48.261s   22
 7. Michael Herck       DPR                   1m48.570s   13
 8. Joylon Palmer       iSport                1m48.614s    8
 9. Dani Clos           Ocean                 1m48.731s   16
10. Andrea Caldarelli   Racing Engineering    1m48.766s   15
11. Nicolas Marroc      Ocean                 1m48.731s   14
12. Roberto Mehri       iSport                1m49.025s   21
13. Julian Leal         Trident               1m49.037s   19
14. Nathanel Berthon    ART                   1m49.098s   23
15. Stefano Coletti     Trident               1m49.120s   20
16. James Jakes         Racing Engineering    1m49.357s   12
17. Simon Trummer       Arden                 1m49.377s   32
18. Jake Rosenzweig     Super                 1m49.537s   14
19. Rodolfo Gonzalez    Super                 1m49.631s   11
20. Armaan Ebrahim      Arden                 1m49.946s   32
21. Pal Varhaug         DAMS                  1m49.949s   34
22. Kevin Ceccon        Coloni                1m49,971s    6
23. Daniel Mancinelli   Rapax                 1m50.780s   19
24. Camilo Zurcher      DPR                   2m10.469s    1

Day 2; Afternoon times
Pos Driver              Team                  Time      Laps
 1. Fabio Leimer        Rapax                 1m47.401s   16
 2. Josef Kral          Addax                 1m47.517s   16
 3. Dani Clos           Ocean                 1m47.827s   21
 4. Sam Bird            DAMS                  1m47.887s   13
 5. Esteban Gutierrez   ART                   1m47.913s   31
 6. Andrea Caldarelli   Racing Engineering    1m47.939s   16
 7. Luca Filippi        Coloni                1m47.944s   17
 8. Charles Pic         Addax                 1m47.972s   18
 9. Stefano Coletti     Trident               1m48.016s   26
10. Kevin Ceccon        Coloni                1m48.156s   13
11. James Jakes         Racing Engineering    1m48.189s   24
12. Michael Herck       DPR                   1m48.294s   23
13. Roberto Mehri       iSport                1m48.387s   21
14. Jolyon Palmer       iSport                1m48.406s   22
15. Nathanael Berthon   ART                   1m48.759s   28
16. Nicolas Marroc      Ocean                 1m48.831s   15
17. Simon Trummer       Arden                 1m48.874s   25
18. Pal Varhaug         DAMS                  1m48.891s   27
19. Rodolfo Gonzalez    Super Nova            1m49.008s   19
20. Julian Leal         Trident               1m49.085s   19
21. Armaan Ebrahim      Arden                 1m49.262s   31
22. Daniel Mancinelli   Rapax                 1m50.102s   13

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