Maldonado quickest at Paul Ricard
Pastor Maldonado finished on top of the times on the first day of official GP2 testing at the Paul Ricard circuit on Tuesday
As the sixth GP2 season officially kicked off, an early drizzle made things tricky for the 24 drivers on track in the morning, and the teams were forced to use wet-weather tyres for the first three hours.
Only Trident's new signing Johnny Cecotto braved to go out in slicks later in the morning session, the Venezuelan going quickest by some margin.
In the afternoon, however, conditions improved and it was Maldonado in the Rapax car who led the way, the Venezuelan finishing ahead of ART Grand Prix's Jules Bianchi and Barwa Addax's Giedo Van der Garde.
Maldonado moved to the top of the times in the last ten minutes of the session, and he was the only driver capable of lapping the French track in less than 1m13s.
Jerome D'Ambrosio and Luiz Razia completed the top five in the DAMS and the second Rapax cars respectively.
The afternoon session was red-flagged four times.
The test continues tomorrow.
Afternoon times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 1:12.987 39 2. Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix 1:13.074 38 3. Giedo Van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 1:13.078 28 4. Jerome D'Ambrosio Dams 1:13.124 32 5. Luiz Razia Rapax 1:13.151 32 6. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1:13.203 28 7. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1:13.215 19 8. Josef Kral Super Nova Racing 1:13.244 37 9. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1:13.301 23 10. Oliver Turvey iSport International 1:13.331 39 11. Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 1:13.362 41 12. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova Racing 1:13.437 40 13. Michael Herck DPR 1:13.455 33 14. Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 1:13.472 29 15. Sergio Perez Barwa Addax Team 1:13.523 32 16. Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 1:13.560 18 17. Davide Valsecchi iSport International 1:13.654 40 18. Johnny Cecotto Trident Racing 1:13.678 29 19. Charles Pic Arden International 1:13.729 31 20. Alberto Valerio Scuderia Coloni 1:13.803 32 21. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden International 1:13.964 32 22. Ho-Pin Tung Dams 1:14.067 41 23. Max Chilton Ocean Racing Technology 1:14.817 35 24. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Scuderia Coloni 1:15.242 25
Morning times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Johnny Cecotto Trident Racing 1:14.674 16 2. Alberto Valerio Scuderia Coloni 1:17.088 14 3. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova Racing 1:20.726 16 4. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Scuderia Coloni 1:21.179 12 5. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1:21.281 15 6. Giedo Van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 1:21.993 18 7. Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 1:22.089 8 8. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1:23.368 14 9. Charles Pic Arden International 1:23.619 13 10. Sergio Perez Barwa Addax Team 1:23.627 15 11. Josef Kral Super Nova Racing 1:23.673 12 12. Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 1:24.025 6 13. Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix 1:24;829 6 14. Jérôme d?Ambrosio Dams 1:25.138 25 15. Ho-Pin Tung Dams 1:25.385 21 16. Max Chilton Ocean Racing Technology 1:26.356 6 17. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden International 1:27.129 8 18. Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 1:33.878 6 19. Davide Valsecchi iSport International 1 20. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 1 21. Michael Herck DPR 1 22. Luiz Razia Rapax 1 23. Oliver Turvey iSport International 1
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Mooted F1 points system like "putting a plaster on a big cut" - Ocon
Haas disputes Magnussen's Chinese GP F1 penalty was "justifiable"
The story of the 2011 Italian Grand Prix
Yamaha to test completely new MotoGP bike at Jerez
Krack: Aston Martin frustrated by inconsistent F1 penalty decisions
Gravel Notes Podcast: WRC Croatia review
The monstrous Capri born from 40 Light years of work
Why Alpine’s rigorous training camp yields telling insights into its juniors
Can F2's relaxed title favourite prove a point to Alpine?
Why F1's junior logjam isn't entirely a product of current issues
Inside the racing university moulding F1 drivers and engineers alike
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