Out Of Brazil – GP2: James Calado quickest on Day 2 in Barcelona

ART Grand Prix driver finishes second day of pre-season test on top

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.

Afternoon results

1. Johnny Cecotto (Arden International), 1:52.781 (18 laps)
2. James Calado (ART Grand Prix), 1:52.878 (28 laps)
3. Felipe Nasr (Carlin), 1:52.892 (24 laps)
4. Kevin Giovesi (Venezuela GP Lazarus), 1:53.081 (21 laps)
5. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (MP Motorsport 1:53.243 (30 laps)
6. Simon Trummer (Rapax), 1:53.414 3(2 laps)
7. Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport), 1:53.515 (26 laps)
8. Julian Leal (Racing Engineering), 1:53.524 (37 laps)
9. Stefano Coletti (Rapax), 1:53.818 (14 laps)
10. Tom Dillmann (RUSSIAN TIME), 1:53.819 (23 laps)
11. Fabio Leimer (Racing Engineering), 1:53.920 (22 laps)
12. Conor Daly (Hilmer Motorsport), 1:53.983 (22 laps)
13. Stéphane Richelmi (DAMS), 1:54.137 (29 laps)
14. Marcus Ericsson (DAMS), 1:54.161 (36 laps)
15. Sergio Canamasas (Caterham Racing), 1:54.240 (18 laps)
16. Rene Binder (Venezuela GP Lazarus), 1:54.349 (14 laps)
17. Robin Frijns (Trident Racing), 1:54.360 (18 laps)
18. Ma Qing Hua (Caterham Racing), 1:54.494 (33 laps)
19. Mitch Evans (Arden International), 1:54.513 (17 laps)
20. Rodolfo Gonzalez (Trident Racing), 1:54.563 (27 laps)
21. Rio Haryanto Barwa (Addax Team), 1:54.662 (35 laps)
22. Jake Rosenzweig (Barwa Addax Team), 1:54.845 (23 laps)
23. Jolyon Palmer (Carlin), 1:54.940 (23 laps)
24. Riccardo Agostini (Hilmer Motorsport), 1:55.359 (26 laps)
25. Christopher Zanella (RUSSIAN TIME), 1:55.425 (12 laps)
26. Daniel Abt (ART Grand Prix), 1:55.770 (26 laps)

Morning results

1. James Calado (ART Grand Prix), 1:50.218 (30 laps)
2. Felipe Nasr (Carlin), 1:50.902 (14 laps)
3. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (MP Motorsport), 1:51.642 (29 laps)
4. Rene Binder (Venezuela GP Lazarus), 1:51.689 (17 laps)
5. Daniel Abt (ART Grand Prix), 1:52.034 (24 laps)
6. Mitch Evans  Arden International), 1:52.176 24 laps)
7. Tom Dillmann (RUSSIAN TIME), 1:52.233 (23 laps)
8. Marcus Ericsson (DAMS), 1:52.266 (23 laps)
9. Johnny Cecotto (Arden International), 1:52.296 (17 laps)
10. Kevin Giovesi (Venezuela GP Lazarus), 1:52.457 (19 laps)
11. Fabio Leimer (Racing Engineering), 1:52.594 (26 laps)
12. Simon Trummer (Rapax), 1:52.685 (29 laps)
13. Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport), 1:52.692 (30 laps)
14. Julian Leal (Racing Engineering), 1:52.946 (26 laps)
15. Jake Rosenzweig (Barwa Addax Team), 1:53.100 (25 laps)
16. Sergio Canamasas (Caterham Racing), 1:53.160 (21 laps)
17. Stéphane Richelmi (DAMS), 1:53.216 (25 laps)
18. Robin Frijns (Trident Racing), 1:53.649 (2 laps)
19. Christopher Zanella (RUSSIAN TIME), 1:53.772 (23 laps)
20. Conor Daly (Hilmer Motorsport), 1:53.912 (17 laps)
21. Rodolfo Gonzalez (Trident Racing), 1:53.994 (12 laps)
22. Jolyon Palmer (Carlin), 1:54.075 (18 laps)
23. Stefano Coletti (Rapax), 1:54.547 (20 laps)
24. Ma Qing Hua (Caterham Racing), 1:54.857 (22 laps)
25. Riccardo Agostini (Hilmer Motorsport), 1:55.077 (16 laps)
26. Rio Haryanto (Barwa Addax Team), 1:55.366 (30 laps)