Two day Ricard test comes to a closeTesting ahead of the new season continued for the GP2 series yesterday at Pual Ricard HTTT.
The objective of this two-day test session was to familiarize teams and drivers with the new car, which underwent important changes since
2007. The objective has been achieved for all the teams, using the 3D track solution (3.853 km), which allowed to really see the performance of the 2008 car.
Another trouble-free day went by and Javier Villa set the pace this afternoon in Le Castellet at the wheel of his Racing Engineering car, closely followed by Vitaly Petrov on his Barwa International Campos Team car.
With Ben Hanley topping yesterday’s afternoon session, the Spanish team seems to be adjusting to the new car quite well.
In third place on Friday evening, Frenchman Romain Grosjean in front of Trident Racing Mike Conway and the two Fisichella Motor Sport International drivers Andy Soucek and Adrian Valles. Romain Grosjean keeps the fastest lap time of the day in a 1:12.031.
Friday afternoon session concluded a fruitful and encouraging two-day testing for the 2008 GP2 car debut.
The 13 teams will gather next week in Barcelona for another two-day session, on March 4th and 5th. The GP2 circus will then end its winter testing season in Le Castellet a week after that.
Javier Villa
“Everything went pretty well for the first contact and after some time without driving whilst the others drivers have been running. I think we have been working very well in the winter and I feel really comfortable with the new car especially from yesterday to today, my confidence was growing and realising that I could be up there."
"This morning we had some small problems with the engine so that we couldn’t run a lot but I think this afternoon the most important thing for us was to get on well with the car and feel comfortable with it and I think we did that although the morning lap times were difficult to reach in the afternoon, but still they were quite good. Right now we have to keep on working for Barcelona and again at Paul Ricard in order to get as much data as possible.”
Source: GP2 / Racing Engineering / Paul Ricard
