Fresh from his GP2 Asia Series success last month, former Renault Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean topped yesterday’s testing at Silverstone.
The cold, windy and wet conditions provided a tricky day’s running for the twenty-six car field and saw many of the drivers struggle to break the two minute barrier.
It would be an important session though – running the new wet Pirelli’s has been something of a rarity and the drivers were out to nail as many laps as possible while the conditions permitted.
Come lunchtime, it was Lotus ART pilot Jules Bianchi that led the standings with a very late best of 1:55.769, following his 29 lap stint. The Frenchman took the top by a clear four-tenths as Arden’s Jolyon Palmer lined up 2nd on the slowly changing track surface.
Esteban Gutierrez set the pace early on in the session, only for the Lotus ART driver to later slip back to 3rd, while Charles Pic (Barwa Addax) secured 3rd and 4th respectively, albeit half-a-second off of Bianchi’s pace.
Next up was the second Barwa Addax pilot, Giedo van der Garde – the Dutchman ran a solid 22 lap session, taking a best of 1:56.496 in the process.
Max Chilton (Carlin) and Luiz Razia (Team AirAsia) ran well, notching up 6th and 7th respectively. They headed Colombian racer Johnny Cecotto, who was sitting in at Ocean Racing Technology for the first time.
Racing Engineering’s Dani Clos registered 9th with a best 1.5 seconds shy of Bianchi, while Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova) rounded out the top-ten. His best of 1:57.452 came during a 19 lap morning.
Michael Herck made the most of the morning though – although the Romanian took 18th spot, the Scuderia Coloni pilot clocked up an impressive 40 laps as he builds to his 2011 campaign.
The afternoon proved to be a much drier affair with Grosjean smashing the morning pace. The Frenchman took the top spot with a best 1:40.725 – a full six tenths clear of Arden’s Josef Kral, although Kral only managed eleven laps to Grosjean’s seventeen tours.
Fabio Leimer (Rapax), Sam Bird (iSport) and Bianchi filled out the top five ahead of the returning Christian Vietoris. The Racing Engineering driver decided to give the GP2 Asia series a miss – he would finish his first day back some nine-tenths down on Grosjean in 6th spot.
Luca Filippi completed a 14 lap run in the afternoon behind the wheel of his Super Nova machine to claim 7th. Julian Leal (8th, Rapax), Herck (9th) and van der Garde (10th) all fell just shy of Filippi, if some distance short of Grosjean.
Indeed, it was an afternoon of precious little running, with several teams either working on pitstop practices or digesting the morning’s running
It was a tactic that would disadvantage Chilton and Davide Valsecchi (Team AirAsia) – both completed only three and nine laps each, before red flags finished the session early.
On track, Fauzy lost control of his Super Nova machine, spinning off the circuit, bringing the session to a halt as the afternoon sun began to withdraw slowly from sight.
Morning times Driver Team Time Laps 1. Jules Bianchi Lotus ART 1:55.769 29 2. Jolyon Palmer Arden International 1:56.146 22 3. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus ART 1:56.236 21 4. Charles Pic Barwa Addax 1:56.244 29 5. Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax 1:56.496 22 6. Max Chilton Carlin 1:56.841 21 7. Luiz Razia Team AirAsia 1:57.027 25 8. Johnny Cecotto Ocean Racing Technology 1:57.270 21 9. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1:57.296 25 10. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing 1:57.452 19 11. Oliver Turvey Carlin 1:57.472 11 12. Romain Grosjean Dams 1:57.576 24 13. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1:57.788 29 14. Kevin Mirocha Ocean Racing Technology 1:57.850 27 15. Julian Leal Rapax 1:57.871 20 16. Marcus Ericsson iSport International 1:58.027 17 17. Sam Bird iSport International 1:58.289 19 18. Michael Herck Scuderia Coloni 1:58.293 40 19. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident Racing 1:58.319 14 20. Pal Varhaug Dams 1:58.439 30 21. Davide Valsecchi Team AirAsia 1:58.770 10 22. Josef Kral Arden International 1:58.048 21 23. Davide Rigon Scuderia Coloni 2:00.070 17 24. Fabio Leimer Rapax 2:00.228 26 25. Stefano Coletti Trident Racing 2:00.299 13 26. Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing -- 2 Afternoon times Driver Team Time Laps 1. Romain Grosjean Dams 1:40.725 17 2. Josef Kral Arden International 1:41.361 11 3. Fabio Leimer Rapax 1:41.480 14 4. Sam Bird iSport International 1:41.525 14 5. Jules Bianchi Lotus ART 1:41.555 15 6. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1:41.639 15 7. Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing 1:41.651 14 8. Julian Leal Rapax 1:41.781 15 9. Michael Herck Scuderia Coloni 1:41.819 20 10. Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 1:41.900 13 11. Oliver Turvey Carlin 1:42.103 17 12. Johnny Cecotto Ocean Racing Technology 1:42.147 17 13. Stefano Coletti Trident Racing 1:42.231 18 14. Marcus Ericsson iSport International 1:42.360 18 15. Davide Rigon Scuderia Coloni 1:42.376 21 16. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1:42.399 16 17. Davide Valsecchi Team AirAsia 1:42.488 9 18. Jolyon Palmer Arden International 1:42.508 12 19. Luiz Razia Team AirAsia 1:42.509 16 20. Charles Pic Barwa Addax Team 1:42.929 13 21. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus ART 1:43.125 14 22. Pal Varhaug Dams 1:43.450 17 23. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident Racing 1:43.479 18 24. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing 1:43.919 16 25. Kevin Mirocha Ocean Racing Technology 1:44.029 21 26. Max Chilton Carlin 1:55.587 3
