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Romain Grosjean tops Spa GP2 practice

Romain Grosjean made the perfect start to the weekend where he can seal the GP2 championship by topping free practice at Spa on Friday

The DAMS driver moved to the top of the times 12 minutes into the session, when the track was predominantly dry. Rain started to fall four minutes later, preventing anyone else from being able to beat his time.

Grosjean's lap could have been even quicker, as he lost time at the Bus Stop chicane while putting a surprisingly bold pass on Luca Filippi under braking. The Italian did not appear too happy with the late lunge, and he went wheel-to-wheel with the championship leader down the start/finish straight in retaliation.

Filippi's Coloni team-mate Michael Herck jumped up to second just before the rain hit, while iSport's Marcus Ericsson set the third quickest time ahead of Grosjean's closest title rival Giedo van der Garde.

The Addax driver had a spin on the entry to Fagnes while the track was at its best, as he caught a damp kerb while turning in. Later in the session he was one of the first to venture out on wet weather tyres, meaning he looked at ease with the conditions as others tentatively joined him a few minutes later.

At around the same time, ART's Jules Bianchi headed out of the pits on slick tyres. He returned at the end of his out-lap, but it was an experiment worth taking given that Spa has already been hit by three heavy showers this morning.

While a few other drivers had spins as the rain intensified, the only casualty of the session was Jolyon Palmer. The Arden driver spun shortly after the pit exit, pitching him into the wall on the right hand side.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                2m00.634s
 2.  Michael Herck        Coloni              2m01.413s  + 0.779s
 3.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              2m01.414s  + 0.780s
 4.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               2m01.438s  + 0.804s
 5.  Charles Pic          Addax               2m01.467s  + 0.833s
 6.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             2m01.523s  + 0.889s
 7.  Max Chilton          Carlin              2m01.650s  + 1.016s
 8.  Christian Vietoris   Racing Engineering  2m01.741s  + 1.107s
 9.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 2m01.852s  + 1.218s
10.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  2m01.950s  + 1.316s
11.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              2m02.049s  + 1.415s
12.  Sam Bird             iSport              2m02.160s  + 1.526s
13.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             2m02.169s  + 1.535s
14.  Julian Leal          Rapax               2m02.180s  + 1.546s
15.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             2m02.702s  + 2.068s
16.  Johnny Cecotto       Ocean               2m02.885s  + 2.251s
17.  Josef Kral           Arden               2m03.135s  + 2.501s
18.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             2m03.403s  + 2.769s
19.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          2m03.640s  + 3.006s
20.  Luca Filippi         Coloni              2m03.686s  + 3.052s
21.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 2m03.934s  + 3.300s
22.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax               2m04.892s  + 4.258s
23.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                2m05.827s  + 5.193s
24.  Brendon Hartley      Ocean               2m05.875s  + 5.241s
25.  Adam Carroll         Super Nova          2m09.175s  + 8.541s
26.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden

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