Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Kobayashi leads Shanghai test

Toyota protege Kamui Kobayashi maintained his impressive form by topping the opening day of official testing for the second GP2 Asia Series.

Fresh from dominating the recent Paul Ricard test sessions, DAMS driver Kobayashi was quickest at Shanghai today as the teams geared up for the season-opening Chinese Grand Prix support races next weekend.

Kobayashi set a lap in 1:45.963 in the afternoon to beat second-placed compatriot Sakon Yamamoto (ART) by three tenths of a second, ahead of Piquet driver Roldan Rodriguez and Jerome D'Ambrosio in the second DAMS car.

Formula Renault 3.5 champion Giedo van der Garde was the best of the drivers without a GP2 start to their name in fifth place for former champions iSport.

Having caused a lengthy red flag after his Fisichella car deposited a large amount of oil on the circuit in the morning, Andreas Zuber took sixth later on.

Former Formula One and Champ Car driver Alex Yoong drove for the Meritus team, who plan to announce their 2008/9 season driver line-up after evaluating various contenders during this week's two-day test. Alongside Yoong, they also tried out Kiwi teenager Earl Bamber, who starred on his A1GP debut at Zandvoort last weekend.

Morning session:Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:47.361 11 2. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:47.389 20 3. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP 1:47.397 21 4. Giedo Van der Garde GFH Team iSport 1:47.660 14 5. Luca Filippi BCN Competicion 1:48.032 12 6. Sakon Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:48.085 13 7. Nelson Philippe ART Grand Prix 1:48.091 27 8. Sergio Perez Barwa Int Campos Team 1:48.214 32 9. Mika Maki Trust Team Arden 1:48.218 26 10. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Intl Campos Team 1:48.229 13 11. Hamad Al Fardan GFH Team iSport 1:48.385 24 12. Michael Herck DPR 1:48.420 23 13. Yuhi Sekiguchi DPR 1:48.697 16 14. Andreas Zuber Fisichella Motor Sport 1:48.942 10 15. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1:49.508 5 16. Chris Van der Drift Trident Racing 1:51.427 8 17. Kevin Nai Chia Chen Fisichella Motor Sport 1:52.646 24 18. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing 2:02.573 4 19. James Jakes Super Nova Racing 2:20.367 3 20 Alex Yoong My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara 8:17.641 1 Afternoon session:Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:45.963 23 2. Sakon Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:46.255 25 3. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP 1:46.491 14 4. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1:46.540 39 5. Giedo Van der Garde GFH Team iSport 1:46.599 21 6. Andreas Zuber Fisichella Motor Sport 1:46.721 36 7. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:46.785 13 8. James Jakes Super Nova Racing 1:47.083 36 9. Vital y Petrov Barwa Int Campos Team 1:47.090 21 10. Mika Maki Trust Team Arden 1:47.126 13 11. Nelson Philippe ART Grand Prix 1:47.161 24 12. Sergio Perez Barwa Int Campos Team 1:47.169 16 13. Hamad Al Fardan GFH Team iSport 1:47.187 18 14. Michael Herck DPR 1:47.430 39 15. Yuhi Sekiguchi DPR 1:47.591 19 16. Alex Yoong My Team Qi-Meritus Mahara 1:47.979 35 17. Luca Filippi BCN Competicion 1:48.038 6 18. Earl Bamber My Team Qi-Meritus Mahara 1:48.065 18 19. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing 1:48.084 27 20 Giacomo Ricci Trident Racing 1:48.664 17 21. Chris Van der Drift Trident Racing 1:49.174 4 22. Kevin Nai Chia Chen Fisichella Motor Sport 1:51.518 16

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