Maldonado tops another GP2 test
Pastor Maldonado continued his excellent pre-season form by topping a fourth straight GP2 test at Barcelona on day one of this week's three days of running
The Venezualen, who has switched back to the Rapax team - which he drove for in 2008 when it still operated under the Piquet title - this season, grabbed first place by 0.016 seconds over ART's Sam Bird 15 minutes from the end of the afternoon session, as the track dried following a brief shower.
Christian Vietories took third for Racing Engineering, ahead of Arden's Charles Pic and Super Nova's Marcus Ericsson, while early pacesetter Jules Bianchi dropped back to sixth in the second ART car.
Addax's Giedo van der Garde had earlier set the pace in the morning session, with Bird, Vietories, Maldonado and Bianchi his closest challengers. This session saw the only red flag of the day, caused by Ho-Pin Tung hitting the Turn 5 barrier in his DAMS car.
Morning session: Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Giedo van der Garde Addax 1m28.145s 19 2. Sam Bird ART 1m28.283s 15 3. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1m28.323s 23 4. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 1m28.669s 14 5. Jules Bianchi ART 1m28.814s 22 6. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1m28.855s 18 7. Oliver Turvey iSport 1m28.874s 22 8. Charles Pic Arden 1m28.962s 18 9. Adrian Zaugg Trident 1m29.018s 20 10. Josef Kral Super Nova 1m29.020s 25 11. Michael Herck DPR 1m29.076s 18 12. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m29.093s 22 13. Luiz Razia Rapax 1m29.126s 12 14. Fabio Leimer Ocean 1m29.258s 10 15. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1m29.265s 14 16. Sergio Perez Addax 1m29.318s 17 17. Johnny Cecotto Trident 1m29.376s 19 18. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova 1m29.439s 25 19. Max Chilton Ocean 1m29.627s 24 20 Vladimir Arabadzhiev Coloni 1m29.727s 22 21. Davide Valsecchi iSport 1m29.755s 23 22. Alberto Valerio Coloni 1m29.868s 15 23. Ho-Pin Tung DAMS 1m30.599s 10 24. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden 1m30.625s 20 Afternoon session: Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 1m27.457s 23 2. Sam Bird ART 1m27.473s 26 3. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1m27.531s 14 4. Charles Pic Arden 1m27.661s 23 5. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova 1m27.705s 27 6. Jules Bianchi ART 1m27.851s 29 7. Michael Herck DPR 1m27.946s 24 8. Davide Valsecchi iSport 1m27.969s 33 9. Luiz Razia Rapax 1m28.043s 28 10. Josef Kral Super Nova 1m28.058s 30 11. Dani Close Racing Engineering 1m28.107s 21 12. Giedo van der Garde Addax 1m28.278s 32 13. Sergio Perez Addax 1m28.296s 33 14. Oliver Turvey iSport 1m28.431s 25 15. Alberto Valerio Coloni 1m28.471s 26 16. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1m28.630s 10 17. Fabio Leimer Ocean 1m28.715s 13 18. Max Chilton Ocean 1m28.803s 20 19. Adrian Zaugg Trident 1m28.818s 20 20 Vladimir Arabadzhiev Coloni 1m29.123s 30 21. Ho-Pin Tung DAMS 1m29.136s 36 22. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden 1m29.508s 27 23. Johnny Cecotto Trident 1m29.933s 10 24. Giacomo Ricci DPR
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