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Bird fastest in Imola practice

iSport's Sam Bird was quickest as the GP2 Asia field got up to speed at Imola with two practice sessions on Friday morning

An additional half hour of running was provided for the GP2 teams' return to the former San Marino Grand Prix venue for the first time since 2006 - Imola having stepped in when the political turmoil in Bahrain led to the cancellation of both the planned Sakhir events.

Times tumbled throughout the morning as both track conditions and drivers' circuit familiarity improved, with Bird ending up on a 1m28.312s.

Addax driver Giedo van der Garde had been quickest ahead of Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin in the first of the two sessions and was second to Bird in the second, 0.2 seconds slower.

Fabio Leimer took third for Rapax in both sessions.

Championship leader Jules Bianchi (ART) was only 14th and 20th in the two sessions - but still fare better than his nearest points rivals, as incidents for both DAMS' Romain Grosjean and iSport's Marcus Ericsson in first practice sidelined them for session two while their cars were repaired. ART's Esteban Gutierrez also crashed right at the end of the second session.

GP2 veteran Luca Filippi has returned to race for Coloni this weekend in place of James Jakes, who was testing Dale Coyne Racing's IndyCar at Barbers Motorsports Park earlier this week. Filippi was 12th in first practice but sat out the later session with a mechanical issue.

Practice one:

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               1m29.095s
 2.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              1m29.379s  + 0.284s
 3.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax               1m29.443s  + 0.348s
 4.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               1m29.486s  + 0.391s
 5.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 1m29.487s  + 0.392s
 6.  Andrea Caldarelli    Ocean               1m29.600s  + 0.505s
 7.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             1m29.604s  + 0.509s
 8.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             1m29.740s  + 0.645s
 9.  Julian Leal          Rapax               1m29.784s  + 0.689s
10.  Michael Herck        Coloni              1m29.901s  + 0.806s
11.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  1m29.954s  + 0.859s
12.  Luca Filippi         Coloni              1m29.988s  + 0.893s
13.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m30.010s  + 0.915s
14.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 1m30.106s  + 1.011s
15.  Josef Kral           Arden               1m30.191s  + 1.096s
16.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m30.216s  + 1.121s
17.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                1m30.225s  + 1.130s
18.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          1m30.311s  + 1.216s
19.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m30.479s  + 1.384s
20.  Oliver Turvey        Ocean               1m30.507s  + 1.412s
21.  Johnny Cecotto       Super Nova          1m30.880s  + 1.785s
22.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             1m32.373s  + 3.278s
23.  Charles Pic          Addax               1m32.475s  + 3.380s
24.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m32.787s  + 3.692s
25.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                1m32.859s  + 3.764s
26.  Sam Bird             iSport              1m33.041s  + 3.946s

Practice two:

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Sam Bird             iSport              1m28.312s
 2.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               1m28.515s  + 0.203s
 3.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax               1m28.566s  + 0.254s
 4.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             1m28.584s  + 0.272s
 5.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  1m28.585s  + 0.273s
 6.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             1m28.646s  + 0.334s
 7.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m28.694s  + 0.382s
 8.  Michael Herck        Coloni              1m28.762s  + 0.450s
 9.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                1m28.894s  + 0.582s
10.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m28.901s  + 0.589s
11.  Johnny Cecotto       Super Nova          1m28.931s  + 0.619s
12.  Charles Pic          Addax               1m28.961s  + 0.649s
13.  Josef Kral           Arden               1m29.084s  + 0.772s
14.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          1m29.292s  + 0.980s
15.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              1m29.293s  + 0.981s
16.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             1m29.341s  + 1.029s
17.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               1m29.410s  + 1.098s
18.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 1m29.437s  + 1.125s
19.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m29.672s  + 1.360s
20.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 1m29.762s  + 1.450s
21.  Andrea Caldarelli    Ocean               1m29.885s  + 1.573s
22.  Oliver Turvey        Ocean               1m29.927s  + 1.615s
23.  Julian Leal          Rapax               1m30.422s  + 2.110s

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