Calado tops another wet GP2 test, Evans up to 6th

GP2 Series

The 2012 GP2 Series best rookie James Calado was the quickest man today on a damp Circuit de Catalunya in this morning’s session with a laptime of 1:50.218. Johnny Cecotto topped the timesheet in the afternoon a shy nine hundredth away from Calado.

The second day of GP2 Series pre-season testing opened this morning in cold temperatures as the rain poured down. The drivers put their wet weather Pirelli tyres to good use as soon as the green light flashed in the pitlane. Daniel Abt was the early pace setter for ART Grand Prix, but it was his teammate Calado who set the record straight and put in a laptime of 1:50.218 ahead of Felipe Nasr whose best efforts put him sixth tenths away from the Brit. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs ended another seven tenths behind the Brazilian. Behind the top three, Rene Binder, Abt, Mitch Evans, Tom Dillmann, Marcus Ericsson, Cecotto and Kevin Giovesi rounded up the top ten. The session was briefly red flagged twice, first when Abt went off track and clipped the barrier at turn 4 putting a premature end to his morning’s endeavours. The second red flag was issued when Cecotto also went wide at Turn 4 in the closing minutes of the session.

The rain held off during the lunch break and hopes were high that we would see a dry afternoon session just as we did yesterday. Simon Trummer set the early pace for Rapax, but his time was bettered by one tenth by Quaife-Hobbs in the opening hour. Unfortunately, the weather gods had decided that today would not be a dry one and the rain picked up again. A first red flag halted the proceedings as Riccardo Agostini stopped at turn 4. The session resumed and Quaife-Hobbs remained top. Two more red flags appeared when Julian Leal first went wide and into the gravel bed, and when Rene Binder ran off at turn 7.

Cecotto found some extra pace in the final hour to claim the top spot in a 1:52.781. No one could better that time. In the dying minutes and after a late red flag courtesy of Abt again who stopped at turn 4, Calado and Nasr put their head down to claim P2 and P3 respectively. Giovesi, Quaife-Hobbs, Trummer, Daniel De Jong, Stefano Coletti and Dillmann rounded up to the top ten.

The final day of testing will start tomorrow at 9am local time. The weather forecast expects a dry day.

Morning results

 DriverTeamLaptimeLaps
1.James CaladoART Grand Prix1:50.21830
2.Felipe NasrCarlin1:50.90214
3.Adrian Quaife-HobbsMP Motorsport1:51.64229
4.Rene BinderVenezuela GP Lazarus1:51.68917
5.Daniel AbtART Grand Prix1:52.03424
6.Mitch EvansArden International1:52.17624
7.Tom DillmannRUSSIAN TIME1:52.23323
8.Marcus EricssonDAMS1:52.26623
9.Johnny CecottoArden International1:52.29617
10.Kevin GiovesiVenezuela GP Lazarus1:52.45719
11.Fabio LeimerRacing Engineering1:52.59426
12.Simon TrummerRapax1:52.68529
13.Daniel De JongMP Motorsport1:52.69230
14.Julian LealRacing Engineering1:52.94626
15.Jake RosenzweigBarwa Addax Team1:53.10025
16.Sergio CanamasasCaterham Racing1:53.16021
17.Stéphane RichelmiDAMS1:53.21625
18.Robin FrijnsTrident Racing1:53.6492
19.Christopher ZanellaRUSSIAN TIME1:53.77223
20.Conor DalyHilmer Motorsport1:53.91217
21.Rodolfo GonzalezTrident Racing1:53.99412
22.Jolyon PalmerCarlin1:54.07518
23.Stefano ColettiRapax1:54.54720
24.Ma Qing HuaCaterham Racing1:54.85722
25.Riccardo AgostiniHilmer Motorsport1:55.07716
26.Rio HaryantoBarwa Addax Team1:55.36630


Afternoon results

 DriverTeamLaptimeLaps
1.Johnny CecottoArden International1:52.78118
2.James CaladoART Grand Prix1:52.87828
3.Felipe NasrCarlin1:52.89224
4.Kevin GiovesiVenezuela GP Lazarus1:53.08121
5.Adrian Quaife-HobbsMP Motorsport1:53.24330
6.Simon TrummerRapax1:53.41432
7.Daniel De JongMP Motorsport1:53.51526
8.Julian LealRacing Engineering1:53.52437
9.Stefano ColettiRapax1:53.81814
10.Tom DillmannRUSSIAN TIME1:53.81923
11.Fabio LeimerRacing Engineering1:53.92022
12.Conor DalyHilmer Motorsport1:53.98322
13.Stéphane RichelmiDAMS1:54.13729
14.Marcus EricssonDAMS1:54.16136
15.Sergio CanamasasCaterham Racing1:54.24018
16.Rene BinderVenezuela GP Lazarus1:54.34914
17.Robin FrijnsTrident Racing1:54.36018
18.Ma Qing HuaCaterham Racing1:54.49433
19.Mitch EvansArden International1:54.51317
20.Rodolfo GonzalezTrident Racing1:54.56327
21.Rio HaryantoBarwa Addax Team1:54.66235
22.Jake RosenzweigBarwa Addax Team1:54.84523
23.Jolyon PalmerCarlin1:54.94023
24.Riccardo AgostiniHilmer Motorsport1:55.35926
25.Christopher ZanellaRUSSIAN TIME1:55.42512
26.Daniel AbtART Grand Prix1:55.77026

Calado tops another wet GP2 test, Evans up to 6th

  • GP2 Series
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