Kobayashi stays on top at Ricard

Kamui Kobayashi continued to dominate the opening day of GP2 testing at Paul Ricard this afternoon.

The DAMS GP2 regular knocked a tenth of a second off his best time from this morning's session to defend his place at the top of the timesheet.

Alberto Valerio was again second fastest for Piquet Sports, while another experienced GP2 racer, Davide Valsecchi, climbed to third with Durango - the team he has re-signed with for next season.

Diego Nunes improved on his morning run to take fourth place for iSport, ahead of Campos Racing's Vitaly Petrov.

Briton Oliver Turvey was the fastest rookie of the day in sixth place for ART, beating fellow GP2 newcomer Paul di Resta, who finished ninth fastest in the other ART car.

The quickest of the other first time GP2 testers in action this afternoon were Sergio Perez (Campos) in eighth, and Luiz Razia (Racing Engineering), Renger van der Zande (Arden), and Sam Bird (DAMS) 10th, 11th and 12th.

The session was only interupted once when another debutant, Kevin Nai Chia Chen, crashed his FMS car at the chicane on the back straight.

This afternoon's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:13.158 34 2. Alberto Valerio Piquet Sports 1:13.393 38 3. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:13.514 30 4. Diego Nunes iSport 1:13.530 38 5. Vitaly Petrov Campos 1:13.596 49 6. Oliver Turvey ART 1:13.695 40 7. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet Sports 1:13.779 38 8. Sergio Perez Campos 1:13.835 40 9. Paul di Resta ART 1:13.854 36 10. Luiz Razia Racing Engineering 1:13.878 43 11. Renger van der Zande Arden 1:13.958 42 12. Sam Bird DAMS 1:14.006 36 13. Will Bratt DPR 1:14.047 45 14. Carlos Iaconelli Durango 1:14.062 39 15. Koudai Tsukakoshi Arden 1:14.096 46 16. Nelson Philippe iSport 1:14.106 34 17. Dani Clos BCN 1:14.217 55 18. Chris van der Drift Trident 1:14.225 18 19. Fabrizio Crestani FMS 1:14.296 58 20. Michael Herck DPR 1:14.314 53 21. James Jakes Super Nova 1:14.573 50 22. Fabio Onidi BCN 1:14.626 55 23. Christian Ebbesvik Racing Engineering 1:14.692 29 24. Narain Karthikeyan Trident 1:15.025 34 25. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Super Nova 1:15.237 40 26. Kevin Nai Chia Chen FMS 1:19.179 15

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