Jules Bianchi finishes pre-season GP2 testing on top

The final pre-season test day took place today at Yas Marina Circuit on the 4.730 kms layout. Very early in the morning session Lotus ART’s Esteban Gutierrez set the pace in a 1:36.684 ahead of Carlin’s Max Chilton, but his lap time was soon bettered by the GP3 Series reigning Champion’s teammate Jules Bianchi who clocked in a lap time of 1:36.300. As the clock ticked down, Bianchi went quicker, so much as to become the only man to go under the 1m36s barrier, eight hundredths of a second ahead of Davide Valsecchi at Team AirAsia while Sam Bird and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top four.

The afternoon session was a bit slower as teams mainly focused again on completing race simulations. Racing Engineering’s Dani Clos rapidly took control of the timesheet in a 1:36,619, with Johnny Cecotto at Super Nova in tow. With drivers upping their total of numbers of laps, the order remained unchanged for the first two hours, and the session was briefly red flagged twice. Entering into the final hour, Team AirAsia’s Luiz Razia edged Clos off the top. The Brazilian’s teammate Davide Valsecchi soon after moved up to P2 before snatching the top spot from Razia in a 1:36.211, and going even quicker the following lap with a 1:36.159. Marcus Ericsson moved up to P3 before another red flag occurred. A final interruption happened with 10 minutes left into the session when Valsecchi and Romain Grosjean collided. At the re-start, iSport’s Sam Bird slipped into P3 in the dying minutes of the day.

This concluded the two-day test session during which 13060 kms and 2761 laps were completed. The fourth season of the GP2 Asia Series will open this Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

Morning session
Driver
Team
Lap time
Laps
1.
Jules Bianchi
Lotus ART
1:35.940
34
2.
Davide Valsecchi
Team AirAsia
1:36.025
37
3.
Sam Bird
iSport International
1:36.154
30
4.
Marcus Ericsson
iSport International
1:36.175
26
5.
Esteban Gutierrez
Lotus ART
1:36.366
30
6.
Josef Kral
Arden International
1:36.403
32
7.
Max Chilton
Carlin
1:36.413
24
8.
Dani Clos
Racing Engineering
1:36.430
23
9.
Charles Pic
Barwa Addax Team
1:36.491
37
10.
Andrea Caldarelli
Ocean Racing Technology
1:36.609
31
11.
Giedo van der Garde
Barwa Addax Team
1:36.613
26
12.
Luiz Razia
Team AirAsia
1:36.739
27
13.
Jolyon Palmer
Arden International
1:36.751
44
14.
Rodolfo Gonzalez
Trident Racing
1:36.771
26
15.
Stefano Coletti
Trident Racing
1:36.832
25
16.
Michael Herck
Scuderia Coloni
1:36.835
19
17.
Fairuz Fauzy
Super Nova Racing
1:36.914
28
18.
Romain Grosjean
Dams
1:36.983
28
19.
Fabio Leimer
Rapax
1:37.009
38
20.
Julian Leal
Rapax
1:37.055
35
21.
Mikhail Aleshin
Carlin
1:37.082
14
22.
Oliver Turvey
Ocean Racing Technology
1:37.244
24
23.
James Jakes
Scuderia Coloni
1:37.326
32
24.
Johnny Cecotto
Super Nova Racing
1:37.415
20
25.
Nathanael Berthon
Racing Engineering
1:37.521
22
26.
PÃ¥l Varhaug
Dams
1:37.540
32
Afternoon Session
Driver
Team
Laptime
Laps
1.
Davide Valsecchi
Team AirAsia
1:36.159
21
2.
Luiz Razia
Team AirAsia
1:36.172
31
3.
Sam Bird
iSport International
1:36.277
31
4.
Marcus Ericsson
iSport International
1:36.464
26
5.
Charles Pic
Barwa Addax Team
1:36.493
20
6.
Rodolfo Gonzalez
Trident Racing
1:36.527
26
7.
Josef Kral
Arden International
1:36.541
35
8.
Max Chilton
Carlin
1:36.568
37
9.
Stefano Coletti
Trident Racing
1:36.575
24
10.
Dani Clos
Racing Engineering
1:36.619
38
11.
Fabio Leimer
Rapax
1:36.670
22
12.
Julian Leal
Rapax
1:36.700
25
13.
Michael Herck
Scuderia Coloni
1:36.716
28
14.
Johnny Cecotto
Super Nova Racing
1:36.721
32
15.
Andrea Caldarelli
Ocean Racing Technology
1:36.727
35
16.
Fairuz Fauzy
Super Nova Racing
1:36.845
24
17.
Giedo van der Garde
Barwa Addax Team
1:36.918
16
18.
Mikhail Aleshin
Carlin
1:37.054
24
19.
Oliver Turvey
Ocean Racing Technology
1:37.201
29
20.
Romain Grosjean
Dams
1:37.219
20
21.
PÃ¥l Varhaug
Dams
1:37.311
35
22.
Jolyon Palmer
Arden International
1:37.554
30
23.
James Jakes
Scuderia Coloni
1:37.632
14
24.
Esteban Gutierrez
Lotus ART
1:38.548
42
25.
Nathanael Berthon
Racing Engineering
1:38.683
24
26.
Jules Bianchi
Lotus ART
1:38.707
34