Maldonado tops final GP2 test
Pastor Maldonado continued his impressive pre-season GP2 form by topping the final official test at Paul Ricard today
The Venezuelan was second fastest in yesterday's sessions and has been a regular fixture in the top three throughout the pre-season.
The top three drivers were covered by just 0.020s today, with Racing Engineering team-mates Javier Villa and Giorgio Pantano just a fraction behind Maldonado in second and third places.
The teams tested on one of Paul Ricard's shorter, twistier track layouts today in an attempt to prepare for the third round of the season at Monaco. The circuit brought the times closer together, with the top 21 drivers managing to post times within one second of Maldonado's benchmark.
The 26 drivers covered over 14,000km during the two days at Paul Ricard this week, which was the last test before the championship gets under way at Barcelona on April 25-26. The GP2 Asia series concludes before then with the first of its three remaining events taking place at Malaysia next weekend.
Morning times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:10.079 31 2. Karun Chandhok iSport International 1:10.210 33 3. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:10.248 34 4. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:10.390 45 5. Adrian Valles Fisichella Motor Sport 1:10.405 60 6. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:10.486 42 7. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:10.535 55 8. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:10.571 38 9. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:10.576 40 10. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:10.577 48 11. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:10.656 46 12. Vitaly Petrov Campos Racing 1:10.686 52 13. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden 1:10.686 53 14. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 1:10.712 34 15. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 1:10.815 42 16. Mike Conway Trident Racing 1:10.817 46 17. Andy Soucek Fisichella Motor Sport 1:10.867 51 18. Ben Hanley Campos Racing 1:10.966 40 19. Diego Nunes DPR 1:11.103 63 20. Alberto Valerio Durango 1:11.139 43 21. Jerome D Ambrosio Dams 1:11.271 43 22. Michael Herck DPR 1:11.287 50 23. Paolo Nocera BCN Competicion 1:11.453 43 24. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:11.503 47 25. Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 1:11.522 59 26. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:11.739 25
Afternoon times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:10.062 35 2. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:10.082 56 3. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:10.251 50 4. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 1:10.270 59 5. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:10.324 34 6. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:10.343 52 7. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:10.418 53 8. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 1:10.432 42 9. Mike Conway Trident Racing 1:10.517 46 10. Vitaly Petrov Campos Racing 1:10.517 52 11. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:10.529 45 12. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:10.553 47 13. Andy Soucek Fisichella Motor Sport 1:10.574 34 14. Adrian Valles Fisichella Motor Sport 1:10.660 63 15. Karun Chandhok iSport International 1:10.685 29 16. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:10.699 28 17. Ben Hanley Campos Racing 1:10.706 46 18. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:10.725 45 19. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden 1:10.737 51 20 Diego Nunes DPR 1:10.972 56 21. Alberto Valerio Durango 1:11.002 36 22. Jérôme D'Ambrosio Dams 1:11.104 42 23. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:11.123 57 24. Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 1:11.202 60 25. Michael Herck DPR 1:11.327 64 26. Paolo Nocera BCN Competicion 1:13.257 24
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