Super Nova driver James Jakes has once again surprised us, posting the quickest time this morning at Paul Ricard, ahead of Luiz Razia, Michael Herck, Stefano Coletti and Christian Vietoris.

Another solid day for Herck, as well as Sam Bird, Oliver Turvey and Christian Vietoris.  Roldán Rodríguez has debuted today, placing his RE car inside the top 1o.  Other notables are da Costa, debuting in the Ocean car – while Leimer, today with DAMS, was considerably slower than yesterday.

New drivers for today include the awaited Jules Bianchi with ART and Marcus Ericsson with Arden – as well as rookies da Costa (Ocean), Andrea Caldarelli (Coloni) Vasiliauskas (Trident).

Times from Italiaracing.net:

1 – James Jakes – Super Nova – 1’12”346 – 28 laps
2 – Luiz Razia – Barwa Addax – 1’12”518 – 42
3 – Michael Herck – DPR – 1’12”523 – 25
4 – Stefano Coletti – DAMS – 1’12”594 – 27
5 – Christian Vietoris – Barwa Addax – 1’12”594 – 40
6 – Sam Bird – Arden – 1’12”600 – 41
7 – Oliver Turvey – iSport – 1’12”627 – 35
8 – Roldan Rodriguez – Racing Engineering – 1’12”663 – 34
9 – Jerome d’Ambrosio – Ocean – 1’12”760 – 29
10 – Alexander Rossi – Piquet GP – 1’12”784 – 30
11 – Charles Pic – Racing Engineering – 1’12”837 – 42
12 – Marcus Ericsson – Arden – 1’13”128 – 53
13 – Antonio Felix Da Costa – Ocean – 1’13”176 – 39
14 – Jules Bianchi – ART – 1’13”195 – 38
15 – Kazim Valisliauskas – Trident – 1’13”328 – 53
16 – Jan Charouz – ART – 1’13”337 – 24
17 – Giacomo Ricci – DPR – 1’13”347 – 26
18 – Max Chilton – iSport – 1’13”369 – 45
19 – Will Bratt – PartyPoker by Coloni – 1’13”424 – 33
20 – Vladimir Arabadzhiev – Piquet GP – 1’13”528 – 33
21 – Fabio Leimer – DAMS – 1’13”738 – 20
22 – Josef Kral – Super Nova – 1’13”883 – 21
23 – Andrea Caldarelli – Party Poker by Coloni – 1’14”191 – 34
24 – Plamen Kralev – Trident – 1’14”521 – 44

Herck lowered his time from the morning session another seven tenths, making him almost half a second faster that Fat Burner driver Fabio Leimer.   At the top of the sheets: Bird, Turvey, Leimer, Jakes and KC repeated their strong morning performance.

Good improvement from American rookie Rozenzweig, just beating countryman Alexander Rossi.  Razia was able to right this morning’s disappointment, with a top-10 showing – just beating Arden teammate Gutierrez.

Overall, disappointing day form Monteiro’s Ocean Racing, at the bottom of the timing sheets all day long.

Again in the final spots, Charouz, Ricci (finally getting some track time), Chia Chen and Kralev – though all improving on their painfully slow morning times.

Times from the afternoon session today at Paul Ricard (courtesy of Autosport.com):

 1.  Michael Herck          DPR                1:12.271   26
 2.  Fabio Leimer           Fat Burner         1:12.619   31
 3.  Sam Bird               ART Grand Prix     1:12.746   14
 4.  Oliver Turvey          iSport             1:12.764   28
 5.  Davide Valsecchi       iSport             1:12.771   29
 (more...)

Results from this morning’s GP2 Main test session at Paul Ricard (times from Autosport.com):

 1.  Michael Herck          DPR                1:12.976   25
 2.  Oliver Turvey          iSport             1:13.094   17
 3.  Christian Vietoris     Fat Burner         1:13.099   27
 4.  Jerome d'Ambrosio      Barwa Addax        1:13.138   33
 5.  Sam Bird               ART Grand Prix     1:13.244   23
 (more...)

List of drivers at Paul Ricard for Day 1.  Thanks to Alberto Valerio for the info and to Sauber11 for the heads-up.

Some comments:

- Not a good sign to see Giacomo Ricci at DPR again… means they were not able to get any “full season” driver in the test seat today

- Arden finally testing Gutierrez… a Telmex driver

-Rookies today are Rozenzweig and Chia Chen (I think he has never tested GP2 Main cars)

-Curious to see how KC does today with Coloni… the veteran of the field (in terms of experience, that is)

The Paul Ricard circuit will see the final GP2 Main tests of 2009, with 3 days at the French track.  As for the previous test, we will try to begin compiling a list of who will attend during the test and with which teams.

(more…)

Toyota had been present in GP2 since 2006 through its Toyota Development Program (TDP).    Drivers that the Japanese automaker sponsored were Franck Perera, Kazuki Nakajima, Kohei Hirate and Kamui Kobayashi, with DAMS and Trident.

Now that Toyota F1 has left the sport, it is quite natural that the TDP program will follow, leaving in its tracks current drivers – most notably Kobayashi,  F3 Euroseries driver Andrea Caldarelli, Henki Waldschmidt, Macau F3 winner Keisuke Kunimoto and Kazuya Oshima. (more…)

Checking out the results from this morning’s practice session, it is clear the track conditions will be key for the afternoon’s qualifying session.  With the track continuously dirty from the sand and with little rubber, reading the track will be one of the most important factors later today.

The F1 cars will put some more rubber on the road, but watching their first practice session it seems as though they are also being extremely cautious on a very slippery track.   This may not help GP2 that much, but any rubber that is laid down will help.

In terms of practice results, Valsecchi was almost 1.5 seconds clear of Marcus Ericsson’s ART – precisely because of a late run that was not matched by other drivers.   Herck did the same, claiming 3rd place towards the end of the session.

During most of the session, the “usual suspects” were on top:  Filippi and Rodríguez, with many rookies up there as well – most notably Bird, Leimer, Rossi and Piscopo.

Let’s see what happens in qualifying… don’t forget to vote on the poll for tomorrow’s race.

New poll, as suggested by our friend Nick… Hurry, poll will close Saturday morning!

With over 500 votes tabulated, Luca Filippi has emerged as the pre-season favorite to take the GP2 Asia/Middle East title this year.  His preseason testing looked solid, no doubt helping his case!

- Bianchi and Ericsson will share ART seat

- Valecchi currently confirmed only for Abu Dhabi with iSport

Just an obvious observation… 12 teams, 24 drivers, 0 Asians.

If the market is so big, so healthy, so interested in racing, why is there not a single Asian driver in this year’s GP2 Asia championship?

No Al Fardan, no Chia Chen … or the “veterans” Yoshimoto, Yamamoto or Chandhok.

Curious isn’t it?  Maybe the positioning is a bit off?  Or is it just that GP2 Asia has no Asian relevance?

It really does lend itself to serious analysis from the organization, in my humble opinion.