Josef Kral fastest for Addax in GP2 practice in Barcelona
The returning Josef Kral was fastest in free practice ahead of qualifying for Saturday's GP2 Series feature race in Barcelona after setting the fastest time on Friday morning around the Circuit de Catalunya
Kral, who raced in the season-opener for Addax at Sepang in Malaysia, was dropped in favour of Dani Clos for the recent Bahrain double-header. With Clos making his Formula 1 race weekend debut with HRT in free practice, a fired up Kral returned and banged in his 1m31.109s 10 minutes into the session.
Before Kral hit the front, most-recent round winner Tom Dillmann set the early pace for Rapax before he was knocked off the top spot by first Felipe Nasr of DAMS and then Caterham Racing's Giedo van der Garde.
Britain's James Calado kept his powder dry in the pitlane in the early stages before going out to set the second-fastest time for Lotus GP, his 1m31.168s just 0.059s off the pace. Nasr stayed third, ahead of van der Garde and Dillmann.
Points dominator Davide Valsecchi was sixth-fastest for DAMS, the Italian suffering a flapping left-sidepod turning vane. Second in points, Luiz Razia, was only 10th fastest for Arden International.
Calado's Lotus team-mate Esteban Gutierrez was down in 18th after a series of brake lock-ups from the man who lies third in the championship.
Laps were limited in practice, as Pirelli has mandated the soft-compound option tyre for this event, which is likely to be used effectively as a qualifying tyre this afternoon.
As teams are limited with their scope for laps on the prime tyre, the drivers did not complete a huge amount of running - only five got into double figures during the 30-minute session.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Josef Kral Addax 1m31.109s 2. James Calado Lotus 1m31.168s + 0.059s 3. Felipe Nasr DAMS 1m31.238s + 0.129s 4. Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1m31.246s + 0.137s 5. Tom Dillmann Rapax 1m31.358s + 0.249s 6. Davide Valsecchi DAMS 1m31.396s + 0.287s 7. Fabrizio Crestani Lazarus 1m31.400s + 0.291s 8. Jolyon Palmer iSport 1m31.476s + 0.367s 9. Stefano Coletti Coloni 1m31.487s + 0.378s 10. Luiz Razia Arden 1m31.717s + 0.608s 11. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1m31.799s + 0.690s 12. Fabio Onidi Coloni 1m31.832s + 0.723s 13. Johnny Cecotto Addax 1m31.870s + 0.761s 14. Max Chilton Carlin 1m31.895s + 0.786s 15. Rodolfo Gonzalez Caterham 1m31.913s + 0.804s 16. Simon Trummer Arden 1m31.997s + 0.888s 17. Marcus Ericsson iSport 1m32.046s + 0.937s 18. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus 1m32.051s + 0.942s 19. Julian Leal Trident 1m32.058s + 0.949s 20. Rio Haryanto Carlin 1m32.060s + 0.951s 21. Nigel Melker Ocean 1m32.150s + 1.041s 22. Nathanael Berthon Racing Engineering 1m32.322s + 1.213s 23. Stephane Richelmi Trident 1m32.526s + 1.417s 24. Victor Guerin Ocean 1m33.494s + 2.385s 25. Ricardo Teixeira Rapax 1m33.605s + 2.496s 26. Giancarlo Serenelli Lazarus 1m34.141s + 3.032s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments