The Netherlands’ Giedo van der Garde led the way on the second day of pre-season GP2 Asia Series testing in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, although the start was delayed for an hour due to fog. By the end of the day and behind the Addax driver, iSport’s Sam Bird and Lotus ART’s Jules Bianchi completed the top three.
James Jakes at Scuderia Coloni opted for a first run setting the early pace but it was soon bettered first by Andrea Caldarelli at Ocean Racing and then by Romain Grosjean at DAMS. The Frenchman stayed at the top of the timesheet until his fellow countryman Jules Bianchi improved his best lap time by eight tenths; the Lotus ART racer went three tenths even quicker just as Davide Valsecchi at Team AirAsia moved up to P2.
Addax’s Giedo van der Garde went top temporarily until Bianchi set his fastest lap time of the morning session with 1:50.007. No-one else could match that time although the top 14 drivers ended up within the same second, with Sam Bird entering the top three after a difficult first test day yesterday due to mechanical gremlins. The morning session was briefly red flagged three times.
With just a hour break, the track activity restarted quickly. Charles Pic at Addax set the early pace with Rapax’s Julian Leal and Coloni’s Michael Herck in tow. Just before the halfway point of the session, Bird went under the 1:50.000 barrier, taking control of the timesheet ahead of Grosjean and van der Garde; but the Briton was soon caught by Grosjean, Trident’s duo Stefano Coletti and Rodolfo González and Pic, who pushed Bird back to P5. The iSport ace lost another spot when Valsecchi improved and moved up to P3.
On the two hour mark, Josef Kral at Arden went top but not for long as van der Garde went under the 1:49.000 barrier with a lap time of 1:48.499 – one tenth quicker than Oliver Turvey’s pole position in the GP2 Series’ final round of 2010. The Dutchman was soon matched but not beaten by Bird and Bianchi, who both went under 1:49.000 barrier.
The session was cut 15 minutes short after Jakes went off-track and damaged the barrier, making it impossible for the rest of the drivers to take advantage of their new sets of tyres. The 26 cars have completed 1,458 laps and 8,099 kilometres (5,032 miles) in the past two days without any major technical issues.
Day 3 of the Yas Marina test will commence at 9am local time (GMT +2) on Sunday
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GP2 Asia Series
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Giedo van der Garde
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| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  G. van der Garde | 01:48.499 | 35 |
| 2. | S. Bird | 01:48.778 | 25 |
| 3. | J. Bianchi | 01:48.868 | 39 |
| 4. | C. Pic | 01:49.156 | 42 |
| 5. | D. Valsecchi | 01:49.185 | 35 |
| 6. | J. Kral | 01:49.220 | 31 |
| 7. | R. Grosjean | 01:49.340 | 45 |
| 8. | M. Chilton | 01:49.413 | 38 |
| 9. | D. Clos | 01:49.431 | 34 |
| 10. | M. Ericsson | 01:49.474 | 38 |
| Full results | |||
| Giedo van der Garde | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Giedo van der Garde photos | |||
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