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Max Chilton fastest during Bahrain GP2 practice

Carlin’s Max Chilton sets the early pace in Bahrain

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27 April 2012 - 10:18

One week after the Bahrain Grand Prix, GP2 have stayed on in the kingdom for their own standalone race weekend, the second consecutive race meeting for the Series on the Sakhir International Circuit. Carlin’s Max Chilton was fastest in this morning’s practice session, with Davide Valsecchi only three tenths behind.

The two Coloni’s of Fabio Onidi and Stefano Coletti were first out as the session got underway, with Onidi being one of the first drivers’ to set a competitive lap time with a 01:43.660. The two Caterham’s of Giedo van der Garde and Rodolfo Gonzalez then went fastest, with the Venezuelan driver set to test Caterham’s F1 car at Mugello next week.

Carlin then showed their hand, as Max Chilton went fastest with a 01:42.136, as his Indonesian team-mate Rio Haryanto slotted into 2nd place. The session was then momentarily halted as the iSport International of Jolyon Palmer stopped out on track at turn 8. As the cars’ returned to the pits, and the marshals retrieved the stricken car, the session’s time remained ticking away.

With only five minutes of the session remaining, the track returned to green flag conditions as the majority of the field returned for one last flying lap. Championship leader, Davide Valsecchi, was able to slot into 2nd place as the Arden of Luiz Razia remained not too far behind in 3rd position.

The GP2 cars’ will return to the track in a busy Friday schedule for qualifying later on, before the feature race takes place in the afternoon instead of its usual Saturday afternoon slot.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Max Chilton	Carlin	1:42.136	4
2.	Davide Valsecchi	DAMS	1:42.436	6
3.	Luiz Razia	Arden International	1:42.691	4
4.	Rio Haryanto	Carlin	1:42.793	9
5.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Racing	1:42.883	9
6.	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	1:42.947	5
7.	Felipe Nasr	DAMS	1:43.008	10
8.	Marcus Ericsson	iSport International	1:43.051	4
9.	Brendon Hartley	Ocean Racing Engineering	1:43.076	6
10.	Fabrizio Crestani	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:43.109	8
11.	Nathanaël Berthon	Racing Engineering	1:43.193	3
12.	Stefano Coletti	Scuderia Coloni	1:43.277	12
13.	Fabio Onidi	Scuderia Coloni	1:43.283	11
14.	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Caterham Racing	1:43.311	12
15.	Dani Clos	Barwa Addax Team	1:43.405	5
16.	Simon Trummer	Arden International	1:43.522	5
17.	Nigel Melker	Ocean Racing Engineering	1:43.573	5
18.	Tom Dillmann	Rapax	1:43.852	4
19;	Giancarlo Serenelli	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:44.613	9
20.	Johnny Cecotto	Barwa Addax Team	1:45.449	3
21.	Stephane Richelmi	Trident Racing	1:46.271	5
22.	Jolyon Palmer	iSport International	1:53.449	3
23.	Julian Leal	Trident Racing	1:57.225	7
24.	Esteban Gutierrez	Lotus GP	—	1
25.	James Calado	Lotus GP	—	2