Kobayashi leads the way in Jerez test

Kamui Kobayashi continued his impressive GP2 testing pace by leading the way in both sessions at Jerez today.

The Japanese driver has set the pace so far this winter, topping the previous main series test at Paul Ricard.

He was also quickest in the run up to the opening GP2 Asia round at Shanghai, although incidents in the races restricted him to a second place finish and a retirement.

But he returned to form in this week's two-day main series test in Spain, narrowly edging out Davide Valsecchi in the morning and Nico Hulkenberg this afternoon.

Hulkenberg put in another impressive day's work with ART, although his best time was bettered by Formula Renault 3.5 race winner Charles Pic, who was also in action with ART today. Pic's was the fourth quickest time of the day, behind Kobayashi, Valsecchi and Koudai Tsukakoshi, who impressed again with Piquet Sports.

Edoardo Mortara had the best day of this week's other GP2 newcomers, finishing the afternoon session seventh quickest for Arden, while Chris van der Drift had his best run yet with Trident running 12th this morning.

British Formula 3 champion Jaime Alguersuari was the latest driver to sample a GP2 car for the first time this week. He was only 25th with iSport this morning but improved to 17th in the afternoon session.

Fellow British F3 graduate Sergio Perez was out with Campos this morning, but did not run this afternoon, while BCN Competicion were absent again.

Morning times

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:24.262 2. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:24.367 +0.105 3. Koudai Tsukakoshi Piquet 1:24.371 +0.109 4. Charles Pic ART 1:24.756 +0.494 5. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1:24.780 +0.519 6. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1:24.841 +0.579 7. Luca Filippi Racing Engineering 1:24.898 +0.636 8. Pastor Maldonado iSport 1:24.924 +0.663 9. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1:25.136 +0.874 10. Diego Nunes Campos 1:25.206 +0.944 11. Andi Zuber Super Nova 1:25.340 +1.078 12. Chris van der Drift Trident 1:25.425 +1.163 13. Carlos Iaconelli Durango 1:25.440 +1.178 14. Christian Ebbesvik FMS 1:25.590 +1.328 15. James Jakes Super Nova 1:25.590 +1.328 16. Karun Chandhok FMS 1:25.662 +1.400 17. Vitaly Petrov Racing Engineering 1:25.730 +1.468 18. Michael Herck DPR 1:25.790 +1.528 19. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1:25.892 +1.630 20. Carlos van Dam FMS 1:26.025 +1.763 21. Sten Pentus DPR 1:26.028 +1.766 22. Alberto Valerio Trident 1:26.137 +1.875 23. Luiz Razia Arden 1:26.141 +1.879 24. Sergio Perez Campos 1:26.153 +1.891 25. Jaime Alguersuari iSport 1:26.710 +2.448

Afternoon times

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:25.071 2. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1:25.084 +0.013 3. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:25.283 +0.212 4. Charles Pic ART 1:25.329 +0.258 5. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1:25.637 +0.566 6. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1:25.640 +0.569 7. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1:25.885 +0.814 8. Diego Nunes Campos 1:25.895 +0.824 9. Luca Filippi Racing Engineering 1:25.897 +0.826 10. Andreas Zuber Super Nova 1:26.016 +0.945 11. Koudai Tsukakoshi Piquet 1:26.076 +1.005 12. Carlos Iaconelli Durango 1:26.107 +1.036 13. Vitaly Petrov Racing Engineering 1:26.113 +1.042 14. Michael Herck DPR 1:26.155 +1.084 15. James Jakes Super Nova 1:26.266 +1.195 16. Alberto Valerio Trident 1:26.358 +1.287 17. Jaime Alguersuari iSport 1:26.491 +1.420 18. Sten Pentus DPR 1:26.842 +1.772 19. Christian Ebbesvik FMS 1:26.893 +1.822 20. Carlos van Dam FMS 1:27.035 +1.964 21. Luiz Razia Arden 1:27.736 +2.665 22. Pastor Maldonado iSport 1:28.039 +2.968 23. Bertrand Baguette Trident 1:28.434 +3.363

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Kobayashi dominates Paul Ricard test

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