Pantano tops first day of testing
Giorgio Pantano continued where he left off at the end of last season by topping the timesheets in the first GP2 winter test session on Tuesday
The Italian, who finished the season with two wins at Monza, was fastest at Paul Ricard driving for Campos Racing for the first time, pipping Andreas Zuber by more than two tenths of a second.
Fairuz Fauzy was third quickest for Durango, while Kazuki Nakajima was the fastest rookie in fourth place, driving for DAMS.
Pantano's former team Fisichella Motorsport had enjoyed a promising morning session, with Franck Perera fastest overall and Antonio Pizzonia fastest of the rookies. However, Perera was replaced with Jason Tahinci in the afternoon, and he could only manage the 16th quickest time.
Reigning champions ART Grand Prix had a quiet day, with Kohei Hirate and Vitaly Petrov in the midfield.
British F3 champion Mike Conway was ninth quickest for Arden, more than one second faster than his 2006 teammate and rival Bruno Senna, who excelled early in the afternoon when the track was wet, but eventually slumped to 19th quickest for DPR.
The test continues on Wednesday.
MORNING SESSION: Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Franck Perera FMS 1:15.039 34 2. Negrao Alexandre Piquet Sports 1:15.465 31 3. Lopez Jose Maria BCN 1:15.737 22 4. Lucas Di Grassi Super Nova 1:15.748 22 5. Fauzy Fairuz Durango 1:15.768 30 6. Lucas Filippi Super Nova 1:15.821 23 7. Javier Villa Racing Eng 1:15.965 29 8. Andreas Zuber Trident 1:16.116 33 9. Antonio Pizzonia FMS 1:16.121 32 10. Pantano Giorgio Campos Racing 1:16.205 16 11. Viso Ernesto BCN 1:16.226 28 12. Hernandez Sergio Racing Eng 1:16.518 28 13. Mike Conway Arden 1:16.664 35 14. Kohei Hirate ART 1:16.909 31 15. Kaziki Nakajima DAMS 1:16.960 39 16. Marco Bonanomi Durango 1:17.161 39 17. Roldan Rodriguez Campos Racing 1:17.619 42 18. Vitali Petrov ART 1:17.778 32 19. Bruno Senna DPR 1:17.794 27 20. Christian Bakkerud Isport 1:18.064 38 21. Chris Van der Drift Trident 1:18.070 40 22. Alberto Valerio Piquet Sports 1:18.246 46 23. Gavin Cronje DAMS 1:18.271 39 24. Charlie Kimball Arden 1:18.488 43 25. Michael Patrizi DPR 1:18.769 31 AFTERNOON SESSION: Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pantano Giorgio Campos Racing 1:14.390 25 2. Andreas Zuber Trident 1:14.624 35 3. Fauzy Fairuz Durango 1:14.931 32 4. Kaziki Nakajima DAMS 1:15.066 28 5. Lucas Di Grassi Super Nova 1:15.081 21 6. Negrao Alexandre Piquet Sports 1:15.169 20 7. Hernandez Sergio Racing Eng 1:15.249 16 8. Javier Villa Racing Eng 1:15.327 31 9. Mike Conway Arden 1:15.514 26 10. Viso Ernesto BCN 1:15.540 21 11. Kohei Hirate ART 1:15.641 21 12. Marco Bonanomi Durango 1:15.647 29 13. Antonio Pizzonia FMS 1:15.688 20 14. Lucas Filippi Super Nova 1:15.724 27 15. Charlie Kimball Arden 1:16.092 26 16. Jason Tahinci FMS 1:16.092 30 17. Roldan Rodriguez Campos Racing 1:16.101 30 18. Chris Van der Drift Trident 1:16.653 32 19. Bruno Senna DPR 1:16.654 36 20. Alberto Valerio Piquet Sports 1:16.758 41 21. Gavin Cronje DAMS 1:16.763 27 22. Vitali Petrov ART 1:16.829 21 23. Christian Bakkerud Isport 1:16.977 27 24. Lopez Jose Maria BCN 1:17.526 12 25. Michael Patrizi DPR 1:17.565 34
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