Pastor Maldonado sets the pace

The sixth season of the GP2 Series kicked off today at Paul Ricard with a three-day official test session on a 3D configuration track. This week, all twenty four cars will be using Bridgestone medium compounds for the first two days and will conclude their tests on soft tyres.

It was a slow morning session in Le Castellet. An unstopping drizzle made the track conditions quite tricky for the drivers, and the teams had no other choice but to use wet tyres throughout the three-hour session, with the exception of Trident’s newest addition Johnny Cecotto who dared to try on slicks in the very last stages of the morning session as the track got a bit dryer. The young Venezuelan ended on the top spot, two and half seconds clear from Coloni’s Alberto Valerio. Five drivers chose to do only one installation lap: iSport’s pair Davide Valsecchi and Oliver Turvey, Rapax duo Pastor Maldonado and Luiz Razia, and DPR Michael Herck.

A more clement weather greeted the GP2 field at the start of the afternoon session shortly red flagged four times. A dry track saw the laptimes improve significantly with all drivers in slick tyres. Confirmed yesterday as part of Rapax line-up, Pastor Maldonado claimed the top spot in the last ten minutes of the session clocking in a time of a 1:12.987. The Venezuelan was closely followed by rookie Jules Bianchi at ART and sophomore Giedo van der Garde at Barwa Addax.

The test session will continue tomorrow at 9am local time.