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Hanley tops 2008 GP2 Main Series first test session |
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
The British driver ended up at the top of the time sheet at Paul Ricard in a 1:12.652. In the wake of a new area in the GP2 history, the new car has shown excellent reliability.
Today saw the first test session of the 2008 GP2 Main Series in Le Castellet, France. All 13 teams set up the new GP2 car for its first spin. Despite some few minor incidents, the new car proved to be both competitive and reliable from the start.
Ben Hanley at the wheel of his Barwa International Campos Team set the pace. Though credited with the fastest lap time, Pastor Maldonado’s times were deleted due to an illegal rear wing configuration.
Bruno Michel, GP2 Organiser, commented: “This has been a great first test session for the 2008 GP2 new car today. Its reliability is the achievement of exceptional work from our partners Renault and Bridgestone as well as our official suppliers Dallara and Mecachrome. Seeing the 26 cars perform so well today gives us high hopes for the season to come. We’re really looking forward to the first races.”
Tomorrow’s session will start at 9:00am local time.
Driver Team Time Laps
1. Ben Hanley Campos grand prix 01:12.880 14
2. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 01:13.202 24
3. Mike Conway Trident Racing 01:13.546 16
4. Bruno Senna iSport International 01:13.631 13
5. Javier Villa Racing engineering 01:13.735 22
6. Davide Valsecchi Durango 01:14.086 23
7. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 01:14.127 29
8. Vitaly Petrov Campos grand prix 01:14.152 23
9. Giorgio Pantano Racing engineering 01:14.226 22
10. Adrian Valles Fisichella Motor Sport 01:14.258 15
11. Andy Soucek Fisichella Motor Sport 01:14.440 30
12. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova International 01:14.449 14
13. Sébastien Buemi Arden international 01:14.467 53
14. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 01:14.510 34
15. Karun Chandhok iSport International 01:14.658 23
16. Alvaro Parente Super Nova International 01:14.745 34
17. Paolo Nocera BCN competicion 01:14.771 6
18. Milos Pavlovic BCN competicion 01:14.834 15
19. Michael Herck DPR 01:15.194 27
20 Diego Nunes DPR 01:15.282 18
21. Alberto Valerio Durango 01:15.336 16
22. Yelmer Buurman Arden international 01:15.444 19
23. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 01:20.586 14
24. Ho Pin Tung Trident Racing 01:27.221 10
25 Jérôme d`Ambrosio DAMS 8
26 Pastor Maldonado** Piquet Sport No lap time
**All times deleted due to illegal rear wing configuration
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