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Romain Grosjean leads Nurburgring GP2 practice

Romain Grosjean laid down a marker for the weekend by dominating the GP2 free practice session at the Nurburgring

The championship leader set the pace for the majority of the session, and the smallest his gap over the field ever got down to was the 0.7-second advantage he enjoyed over Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) when the Spaniard went second in the closing stages.

The DAMS driver had established a one-second gap back to his pursuers heading towards the middle of the 30-minute session, as he and ART's Jules Bianchi set the pace.

Bianchi eventually skimmed the gap to 0.8 seconds, but he was bumped down to third by Clos's final effort.

Series veteran Luca Filippi was fourth quickest, as he prepares to make his 100th start following a switch of teams from Super Nova to Coloni for this weekend.

The Italian had a minor scare at the chicane on one lap though, when he turned into the left-hander as a touring Giedo van der Garde was negotiating the first apex.

The Addax driver had been driving very slowly back to the pits for some time as he struggled with a throttle problem, and had unfortunately ended up on the inside of the track as he got out of the way of faster cars on the approach to the chicane.

Filippi chose to abandon at the last second and cut the chicane, but the near miss is being investigated by the stewards.

Super Nova's Filippi replacement Adam Carroll made a quiet return to GP2, where he is set to make his first start for more than three years this weekend. The former A1GP champion finished with the 23rd fastest time.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                1m40.484s
 2.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  1m41.222s  + 0.738s
 3.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 1m41.326s  + 0.842s
 4.  Luca Filippi         Coloni              1m41.330s  + 0.846s
 5.  Charles Pic          Addax               1m41.411s  + 0.927s
 6.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 1m41.426s  + 0.942s
 7.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax               1m41.616s  + 1.132s
 8.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               1m41.716s  + 1.232s
 9.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             1m41.748s  + 1.264s
10.  Alvaro Parente       Carlin              1m41.834s  + 1.350s
11.  Christian Vietoris   Racing Engineering  1m41.863s  + 1.379s
12.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             1m41.936s  + 1.452s
13.  Sam Bird             iSport              1m41.971s  + 1.487s
14.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               1m42.049s  + 1.565s
15.  Michael Herck        Coloni              1m42.077s  + 1.593s
16.  Kevin Mirocha        Ocean               1m42.213s  + 1.729s
17.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m42.248s  + 1.764s
18.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m42.250s  + 1.766s
19.  Josef Kral           Arden               1m42.312s  + 1.828s
20.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          1m42.335s  + 1.851s
21.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m42.380s  + 1.896s
22.  Adam Carroll         Super Nova          1m42.471s  + 1.987s
23.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             1m42.641s  + 2.157s
24.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                1m42.673s  + 2.189s
25.  Julian Leal          Rapax               1m42.927s  + 2.443s
26.  Johnny Cecotto       Ocean               1m43.032s  + 2.548s

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