Christian Vietoris tops last day

GP2 Series Pre-season testing came to an end today in Barcelona with rookies firmly proving their strengths and potential, Christian Vietoris leading the field in the morning session and setting the best laptime of the day. A total of six rookies finished in the Top 10. This afternoon although Davide Valsecchi was quickest on track, five newcomers climbed again in the Top 10 finishers.

On great form since the beginning of the three-day test session, rookie Vietoris at Racing Engineering took top spot one hour after the pitlane opened and stayed put until lunch break. Oliver Turvey moved up to second fastest in the last half hour of the session edging out Dani Clos on the second Racing Engineering car. Also competitive was Charles Pic at Arden, finishing fourth, his strongest showing so far. Behind him was another Frenchman and newcomer, ART’s Jules Bianchi rounding the Top 5. Yesterday’s quickest man Jérôme d’Ambrosio finished in 6th place ahead of Pastor Maldonado, the two Super Nova cars – Josef Kral ahead of Marcus Ericsson, and Sergio Perez at Addax. The session was red flagged twice, first following the collision between Ho-Pin Tung and Adrian Zaugg at Turn 5, and then after Bianchi hit the barriers at Turn 3 because of a technical gremlin.

While Leimer topped the timesheet for most of the afternoon session, the last thirty minutes where once again extremely animated and saw drastic changes in the classification. It started with Davide Valsecchi taking the lead with Maldonado moving up to second place three hundredths behind. Fabio Leimer at Ocean confirmed his good form in third place ahead of rookies Sam Bird, Turvey and Bianchi. Giedo van der Garde finished in seventh place with Max Chilton, Luiz Razia and d’Ambrosio in tow.

This marks the end of pre-season tests for GP2 Series. The 2010 season will kick off in Barcelona alongside Formula One on May 7, 8, 9.