Hamilton fastest at Valencia
Lewis Hamilton emerged quickest as ART topped the timesheets for the first day of official GP2 testing at Valencia this week - however the show was stolen by former Renault F1 test driver Franck Montagny
Hamilton's morning lap of 1:19.362 seconds put him ahead of teammate Alexandre Premat for the overall quickest lap in the first day of the prolonged build-up to this weekend's opening round of the series.
However Montagny, recruited by FMS International just to help rookie drivers Luca Filippi and Jason Tahinci with car set-up, was third quickest overall, and the fastest runner in the afternoon session.
Montagny has experience of Valencia from his Renault and World Series by Nissan days. He was also involved in the development of the GP2 car, although he never ran more than ten consecutive laps in that period.
Both Tahinci and Filippi shared the team's other car in the session. Tomorrow, they will return to having a car each, as Montagny has only been recruited for today.
Nelson Piquet was fourth quickest ahead of teammate Xandi Negrao and iSport's Tristan Gommendy.
Several red flags fell as drivers pushed the limits, which included offs for Ferdinando Monfardini and Sergio Hernandez.
The new season begins on Saturday, when the first of this weekend's two races will be held.
Morning times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Hamilton ART Grand Prix 1:19.362 30 2. Premat ART Grand Prix 1:19.597 30 3. Piquet Piquet Sports 1:19.947 33 4. Negrao Piquet Sports 1:20.017 28 5. Gommendy iSport International 1:20.099 31 6. Valles Campos Racing 1:20.178 33 7. Perera Dams 1:20.318 24 8. Di Grassi Durango 1:20.342 17 9. Yoshimoto BCN Competicion 1:20.403 6 10. Lapierre Arden International 1:20.424 27 11. Lopez Super Nova International 1:20.490 21 12. Ammermuller Arden International 1:20.520 22 13. Bruni Trident Racing 1:20.746 23 14. Montagny FMS International 1:20.749 12 15. Glock BCN Competicion 1:20.891 21 16. Porteiro Campos Racing 1:20.919 23 17. Zuber Trident Racing 1:20.920 31 18. Pla DPR Direxiv 1:20.985 15 19. Carroll Racing Engineering 1:21.189 33 20. Villa Racing Engineering 1:21.347 23 21. Viso iSport International 1:21.376 28 22. Monfardini Dams 1:21.536 33 23. Piccione DPR Direxiv 1:21.931 16 24. Hernandez Durango 1:22.054 16 25. Fauzy Super Nova International 1:22.110 31 26. Filippi FMS International 1:22.320 29
Afternoon times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Montagny FMS International 1:19.918 34 2. Lapierre Arden International 1:20.214 29 3. Perera Dams 1:20.236 37 4. Lopez Super Nova International 1:20.438 19 5. Pla DPR Direxiv 1:20.453 26 6. Bruni Trident Racing 1:20.520 21 7. Ammermuller Arden International 1:20.524 24 8. Gommendy iSport International 1:20.691 31 9. Valles Campos Racing 1:20.720 22 10. Viso iSport International 1:20.734 29 11. Piccione DPR Direxiv 1:20.821 33 12. Zuber Trident Racing 1:20.863 18 13. Porteiro Campos Racing 1:20.863 18 14. Hernandez Durango 1:20.920 19 15. Glock BCN Competicion 1:20.983 30 16. Yoshimoto BCN Competicion 1:21.118 27 17. Monfardini Dams 1:21.178 26 18. Carroll Racing Engineering 1:21.257 31 19. Villa Racing Engineering 1:21.265 35 20. Di Grassi Durango 1:21.584 28 21. Filippi FMS International 1:21.595 18 22. Premat ART Grand Prix 1:21.673 29 23. Hamilton ART Grand Prix 1:21.730 16 24. Fauzy Super Nova International 1:21.812 18 25. Negrao Piquet Sports 1:23.254 12 26. Piquet Piquet Sports 1:23.950 7 27. Tahinci FMS International 1:27.923 8
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