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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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