Kobayashi tops Barcelona GP2 test
Kamui Kobayashi topped the first day of GP2 testing at Barcelona this week while several of the expected front runners were delayed by mechanical problems this afternoon
Kobayashi's quickest lap, a 1:26.806, was two tenths quicker than the best time set in last year's test with the old car, but he was one of few drivers to use a second set of new tyres this afternoon.
Yelmer Buurman ended the day second fastest, albeit over a half a second behind Kobayashi, with Javier Villa continuing his strong pre-season form in third.
Bruno Senna, Luca Filippi, Ben Hanley, and Karun Chandhok were just some of the driver's expected to feature more prominently, but all four lost running time this afternoon with mechanical problems.
Pastor Maldonado set the pace in the morning session today, ahead of Senna and Filippi who made good progress before their problems after lunch.
As expected, the problem with the car's steering rack, which was discovered at the Paul Ricard test last week, returned but Dallara brought a new batch of parts to Barcelona and expect to have resolved the problem by the next test at Paul Ricard next week.
The test at Barcelona concludes with a second day of running tomorrow.
Afternoon times:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:26.806
2. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden 1:27.344
3. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:27.522
4. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:27.564
5. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:27.597
6. Vitaly Petrov Campos 1:27.605
7. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:28.071
8. Jerome D'Ambrosio Dams 1:28.306
9. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:28.321
10. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:28.336
11. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 1:28.381
12. Adrian Valles Fisichella Motor Sport 1:28.396
13. Karun Chandhok iSport International 1:28.418
14. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:28.481
15. Ben Hanley Campos 1:28.549
16. Alberto Valerio Durango 1:28.555
17. Paolo Nocera BCN Competicion 1:28.666
18. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:28.697
19. Andy Soucek Fisichella Motor Sport 1:28.822
20. Mike Conway Trident Racing 1:28.880
21. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 1:28.887
22. Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 1:29.304
23. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:29.338
24. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:29.342
25. Michael Herck DPR 1:30.884
Morning times:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:27.868
2. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:27.940
3. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:28.086
4. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:28.092
5. Vitaly Petrov Campos 1:28.127
6. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:28.195
7. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:28.263
8. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:28.403
9. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 1:28.534
10. Mike Conway Trident Racing 1:28.589
11. Andy Soucek Fisichella Motor Sport 1:28.602
12. Adrian Valles Fisichella Motor Sport 1:28.605
13. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 1:28.609
14. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:28.621
15. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden 1:28.660
16. Ben Hanley Campos 1:28.703
17. Jerome d'Ambrosio Dams 1:28.710
18. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:28.749
19. Alberto Valerio Durango 1:29.308
20 Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:29.362
21. Paolo Nocera BCN Competicion 1:29.560
22. Diego Nunes DPR 1:30.279
23. Michael Herck DPR 1:30.538
24. Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 1:31.759
25. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:38.259
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