Leimer quickest as GP2 test kicks off at Jerez
Fabio Leimer set the pace on the first day of GP2 testing at Jerez, topping the timesheets in both the morning and afternoon session for Racing Engineering
The 22-year-old, who finished 14th in this year's championship with the Rapax squad, set his best time of 1m27.282s in the morning session.
That was just nine thousandths of a second faster than 2011 GP2 runner-up Luca Filippi, who completed the morning for Scuderia Coloni before handing over to Auto GP prize winner Kevin Ceccon.
The afternoon session was slower and Leimer's best time was just under 0.5s shy of his morning benchmark, but it was enough to again top the timesheets, this time from Caterham Team AirAsia's Yelmer Buurman.
Sam Bird posted the third fastest time of the day - again in the morning - as he completed 33 laps for the Rapax squad, with Johnny Cecotto (Barwa Addax) ahead of Fabio Onidi in the second Coloni machine.
2011 GP3 champion Valtteri Bottas, one of seven GP3 graduates in the test, was one of the few drivers to improve his times in the afternoon, as he got down to a 1m28.113s in the Lotus ART.
He will hand over to his GP3 rival and runner-up James Calado for the final day of testing tomorrow, the Briton having finished in the midfield for Ocean Racing on day one.
Morning session Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1:27.282 29 2. Luca Filippi Scuderia Coloni 1:27.291 29 3. Sam Bird Rapax 1:27.555 33 4. Johnny Cecotto Barwa Addax Team 1:27.566 25 5. Fabio Onidi Scuderia Coloni 1:27.587 32 6. Yelmer Buurman Caterham Team AirAsia 1:27.786 32 7. Jolyon Palmer iSport International 1:27.801 31 8. Dani Clos Barwa Addax Team 1:27.894 24 9. Josef Kral Trident Racing 1:27.909 20 10. Antonio Felix Da Costa Caterham Team AirAsia 1:28.090 32 11. Adam Carroll Super Nova Racing 1:28.212 20 12. Alvaro Parente Carlin 1:28.289 22 13. Max Chilton Carlin 1:28.317 21 14. James Calado Ocean Racing Technology 1:28.369 26 15. Rodolfo Gonzalez Racing Engineering 1:28.443 25 16. Valtteri Bottas Lotus ART 1:28.459 28 17. Simon Trummer Arden International 1:28.597 33 18. Stéphane Richelmi Ocean Racing Technology 1:28.7-3 27 19. Julian Leal Trident Racing 1:28.709 24 20. Nigel Melker Arden International 1:28.779 34 21. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing 1:28.907 14 22. Daniele Zampieri Rapax 1:29.091 29 23. Rio Haryanto Dams 1:29.097 26 24. Nathanël Berthon Lotus ART 1:29.241 30 25. Nico Muller Dams 1:29.288 25 26. Carlos Iaconelli iSport International 1:30.029 23 Afternoon session
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1:27.777 20 2. Yelmer Buurman Caterham Team AirAsia 1:27.874 28 3. Dani Clos Barwa Addax Team 1:28.049 17 4. Valtteri Bottas Lotus ART 1:28.113 31 5. Josef Kral Trident Racing 1:28.194 26 6. Alvaro Parente Carlin 1:28.254 18 7. Max Chilton Carlin 1:28.259 21 8. Sam Bird Rapax 1:28.373 31 9. Jolyon Palmer iSport International 1:28.490 32 10. Nigel Melker Arden International 1:28.574 26 11. Nathanël Berthon Lotus ART 1:28.576 29 12. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing 1:28.606 23 13. Stéphane Richelmi Ocean Racing Technology 1:28.613 25 14. Fabio Onidi Scuderia Coloni 1:28.648 18 15. Johnny Cecotto Barwa Addax Team 1:28.727 27 16. James Calado Ocean Racing Technology 1:28.731 28 17. Rodolfo Gonzalez Racing Engineering 1:28.868 26 18. Antonio Felix Da Costa Caterham Team AirAsia 1:28.875 32 19. Daniele Zampieri Rapax 1:28.924 32 20. Kevin Ceccon Scuderia Coloni 1:28.996 30 21. Rio Haryanto Dams 1:29.160 28 22. Simon Trummer Arden International 1:29.202 26 23. Nico Muller Dams 1:29.678 28 24. Julian Leal Trident Racing 1:29.823 8 25. Carlos Iaconelli iSport International 1:30.253 24 26. Adam Carroll Super Nova Racing 1:31.734 8
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