Rapax veteran Pastor Maldonado was quickest on the opening day of pre-season testing for the 2010 GP2 Series at Le Castellet

The sixth season of GP2 kicked off today at Paul Ricard with a three-day official test session on the 3D configuration. This week, all twenty four cars will be using Bridgestone medium compounds for the first two days and will conclude the test on soft tyres.

It was a slow morning. A relentless drizzle made track conditions quite tricky for the drivers, and the teams had no 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 slicks in the very last stages of the session as the track got a bit dryer.

The young Venezuelan ended the morning in the top spot, two-and-a-half seconds clear of 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.

More clement weather greeted the GP2 field at the start of the afternoon session. A dry track saw the lap times improve significantly with all the drivers on slick tyres.

Confirmed yesterday as part of Rapax line-up, Pastor Maldonado claimed the top spot in the last ten minutes of the session posting a time of 1:12.987.

The Venezuelan was closely followed by rookie Jules Bianchi at ART and Giedo van der Garde in the Barwa Addax car.