25/03/2010
NEWS STORY
Young guns dominated the last day of GP2 testing at Paul Ricard, but Pastor Maldonado, pace-setter on Tuesday and Wednesday, ended the week on top spot.
Maldonado ended all three days at the top of the timesheets, today posting a best time of 1:09.784 during the afternoon session. The day was also marked by the rookies' strong performances starting with Jules Bianchi who claimed the top spot this morning.
In a drying morning session on the 2D short configuration track and using soft tyres, ART placed their rookie duo at the top of the timesheets, Jules Bianchi half a tenth quicker than Sam Bird. Behind them, Oliver Turvey was third quickest but his times were later deleted after his iSport car was found to be underweight, as was the car of DAMS' Ho-Pin Tung.
Therefore, it was newcomer Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering) who ended up with the third best time of the session ahead of Rapax' Pastor Maldonado. Unable to complete any laps yesterday afternoon following an unfortunate crash at the pitlane exit, rookie Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova) ended up fifth ahead of Dani Clos, Jerome d'Ambrosio, Charles Pic, Sergio Perez and Alberto Valerio.
In the afternoon, which saw six red flags, the young guns continued to show strong form: Super Nova's Josef Kral dominated for most of the session until Vietoris took control and Maldonado moved up to P2.
The final red flag was caused by a collision between Ericsson and Adrian Zaugg fifteen minutes before the end. When the session was given the green light again, the remainder of the pack got back to work and soon Maldonado had claimed the top spot, one-tenth quicker than Bianchi. Both men lapped the track in less than 1:10s. Ocean's Fabio Leimer finished third ahead of Vietoris, Bird, Kral, Ericsson, Cecotto, Clos and van der Garde.
The GP2 teams will gather again in two weeks in Barcelona for the final pre-season collective test on April 7, 8 and 9.