HRT debutants delighted with test

The GP2 rivals shared the second day of the F1 rookie test at Yas Marina, with Valsecchi setting the 11th fastest time of the day with an improvement on his final run and Kral ending up 13th.

"Maybe it was possible to do something better, but I was quite competitive," Valsecchi told AUTOSPORT. "Considering how many laps I did, it was a good enough performance and the team was happy that I did a good job. I had just two-and-a-half hours, but it came easily.

"We beat Lotus and Virgin and I was certainly confident to be fast here because I won in GP2 on Sunday. I immediately had the confidence to be fast and after my first run I already beat the time that my team-mate set.

"The car is a Dallara, so the chassis is the most similar to GP2. This helped me a lot, even with the position in the car. It meant that everything was familiar."

Kral's time was just over a second of Valsecchi's, but he was pleased with his pace as he ran during the first half of the day when the track was not quite as fast.

"I think it was reasonable because in the morning the laptimes were slower than in the afternoon," he told AUTOSPORT. "So I think that the laptime that I set was quite good compared to the others, especially from first morning. I'm really happy with it and I'm hoping that the team is happy."