Nelson Piquet Jr has given his championship aspirations the best possible start by taking pole position for the opening round of the GP2 series in Valencia.
Nelson Piquet Jr will start the first race of the 2006 GP2 series campaign from pole position. The Brazilian, who has put in a number of strong performances in winter testing building up to the season opener, stopped the clock at 1:17.886, almost half a second faster than his nearest rival Tristan Gommendy.
It was hard to get a clear lap early on, Piquet noted after the session, but luckily I could get a good one behind Gommendy near the end. Everyone had traffic so I was a bit lucky, but the pace for everyone will be closer in the race.
ART driver Lewis Hamilton set the early pace in the session, bringing his lap times down each time around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo and looking like he had done enough to claim pole on his first attempt, but Piquet blew past with just three minutes remaining.
With Gommendy also pipping the Englishmans time, Hamilton starts from third on the grid.
With the session running so early in the morning there was little rubber on the circuit, and a number of drivers were caught out by the conditions. Both FMS drivers spun harmlessly into the gravel, as did the Racing Engineering drivers, with Adam Carroll losing the rear end trying to improve on 13th position.
Hiroki Yoshimoto also suffered a small fire as he brought his car in to be weighed the marshals were quick to spray their extinguishers, but it meant the Japanese drivers session was over.
The times throughout the grid were extremely tight, with one second covering the first 11 drivers and two seconds blanketing 22 cars.
Pos Driver Team Time 1 PIQUET Piquet Sports 1:17.886 2 GOMMENDY iSport International 1:18.360 3 HAMILTON ART Grand Prix 1:18.400 4 VALLES Campos Racing 1:18.551 5 VISO iSport International 1:18.623 6 LOPEZ Super Nova International 1:18.659 7 AMMERMULLER Arden International 1:18.681 8 PORTEIRO Campos Racing 1:18.717 9 PREMAT ART Grand Prix 1:18.752 10 BRUNI Trident Racing 1:18.772 11 NEGRAO Piquet Sports 1:18.886 12 PERERA Dams 1:18.890 13 CARROLL Racing Engineering 1:18.893 14 ZUBER Trident Racing 1:18.918 15 PLA DPR Direxiv 1:19.106 16 PICCIONE DPR Direxiv 1:19.199 17 MONFARDINI Dams 1:19.217 18 YOSHIMOTO BCN Competicion 1:19.251 19 FILIPPI FMS International 1:19.294 20 DI GRASSI Durango 1:19.349 21 LAPIERRE Arden International 1:19.602 22 FAUZY Super Nova International 1:19.725 23 GLOCK BCN Competicion 1:20.092 24 HERNANDEZ Durango 1:20.142 25 VILLA Racing Engineering 1:20.339 26 TAHINCI FMS International 1:20.994
Nelson Piquet Jr has set the fastest time in the final afternoon of testing at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
Nelson Piquet Jr has finished the final session of pre-season GP2 series testing on top of the timesheets. The Brazilian took his Piquet Sports entry to a top time of 1:19.445 on an afternoon in which the teams and drivers ran heavy to test race set-ups for this weekend's races. Neslon was followed by the iSport of Tristan Gommendy, with local boy Felix Porteiro third for the Campos Racing team.
The temperatures stayed down this afternoon, as light spots of rain fell towards the end of the afternoon. The rain never fell hard enough to merit wet tyres as the potential downpour that had been forecast instead manifested itself in light spitting.
The top three were joined in the top one second bracket by the Dams of Franck Perera, as the Trident Racing pairing of Zuber and Bruni came home fifth and sixth. Adrian Valles completed an excellent day for Campos Racing in seventh, with Lucas di Grassi eight for Durango, Nicolas Lapierre ninth for Arden International, and the quickest overall man of the test Lewis Hamilton tenth for ART Grand Prix.
Tomorrow is a free day for the drivers and teams, as they prepare for the race weekend which begins on Saturday morning. Tomorrow night however will see the launch of the GP2 series in the heart of Valencia itself. Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1 PIQUET Piquet Sports 1:19.445 24 2 GOMMENDY iSport International 1:19.770 19 3 PORTEIRO Campos Racing 1:20.178 44 4 PERERA Dams 1:20.434 52 5 ZUBER Trident Racing 1:20.444 34 6 BRUNI Trident Racing 1:20.541 19 7 VALLES Campos Racing 1:20.827 53 8 DI GRASSI Durango 1:20.839 32 9 LAPIERRE Arden International 1:20.882 34 10 HAMILTON ART Grand Prix 1:20.933 46 11 GLOCK BCN Competicion 1:20.953 49 12 FILIPPI FMS International 1:21.070 35 13 AMMERMULLER Arden International 1:21.148 38 14 NEGRAO Piquet Sports 1:21.217 27 15 PREMAT ART Grand Prix 1:21.234 47 16 PICCIONE DPR Direxiv 1:21.286 22 17 VILLA Racing Engineering 1:21.415 30 18 HERNANDEZ Durango 1:21.712 50 19 FAUZY Super Nova International 1:21.733 40 20 LOPEZ Super Nova International 1:21.840 38 21 PLA DPR Direxiv 1:22.032 25 22 VISO iSport International 1:22.353 24 23 CARROLL Racing Engineering 1:22.423 18 24 YOSHIMOTO BCN Competicion 1:22.565 35 25 MONFARDINI Dams 1:22.601 14 26 TAHINCI FMS International 1:22.807 28
Piquet looks ahead to GP2 opener with fastest lap at Valencia
GP2 Series, Round 1 - Valencia
source: piquetsports.com.br
The highly-anticipated 2006 GP2 series gets underway this weekend at the Valencia circuit in Spain. Nelson Piquet Jr, along with the other 25 drivers, spent Wednesday and Thursday this week completing the final pre-season test at the Spanish track, in preparation for the season opener. Nelson was consistently fast over the two days, and finished up quickest this afternoon, despite the car being confined to the garage for much of the session due to gearbox problems.
The test was a vital time for Nelson, who unlike many of his rivals, does not have racing experience at Valencia. He quickly got to grips with the track, finishing third quickest in the morning session on the first day, completing 33 laps and setting a fastest time of 1:19.947. It was a disappointing afternoon with technical problems meaning Nelson could complete just 4 laps.
He was, however, back on the pace on day two, topping the tables early on in the morning, but eventually finishing the morning session second fastest, with a time of 1:19.012. Another exasperating afternoon followed, with Nelson only able to get on track for the final thirty minutes of the session due to further technical problems, although the performance was good once again when the car finally got out on track. He made the most of his time, finishing the afternoon fastest.
This weekend will comprise a slightly different timetable to the usual GP2 set-up. There will be no official practice, due to the two-day test that has already taken place. Instead, drivers will begin their weekend straight off with qualifying at 9am on Saturday morning.
This will be quickly followed by the first of the weekend's two races, which will begin at 12.30pm. Sunday is made up of a twenty-minute warm-up at 10am and the second race at 12.30pm.
Nelson Piquet Jr "It's been a mixed couple of days. The car has broken a lot, which is so frustrating, but there is not a lot I can do about it. But once we were on track, we were really quick all the time, and the car felt pretty perfect. A lot of the drivers in GP2 have experience at Valencia, which I don't, but I feel like I've got to grips with it quickly and it's a track that I really like. There is absolutely nowhere to overtake so we need to qualify really well on Saturday morning."
Valencia Race Weekend Schedule Saturday 8 April 0900-09.30 Qualifying 1230-13.45 Race 1 (45 laps / 75 mins)
Sunday 9 April 1000-1020 Warm Up 1230-1315 Race 2 (30 laps / 45 mins)
Nelson Piquet Jr today concluded a two-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.
It was an opportunity for Nelson and the team to continue their preparation work for the 2006 GP2 series, which gets underway next weekend in Valencia. Nelson again put in a strong performance over the two days, finishing fastest overall yesterday, and second fastest in this afternoon's session.
Yesterday, Nelson completed 50 laps, recording a fastest time of 1:23.315, unbeatable by his rivals. It was quite a good day although technical problems sidelined Nelson for the final hour of the day.
Today, Nelson continued set-up work, running several planned programmes and completed a further 72 laps. In this afternoon's session Nelson recorded the second fastest time, with a lap of 1:23.611.
Nelson Piquet Jr "We've had another fairly good couple of days. We had limited running yesterday afternoon after we had a few problems but we've had a decent amount of time on track and I'm reasonably happy with how it went. We only have two more days left of testing now before the first race but the team is working really hard and everything keeps on improving."
Tuesday Overall Times Driver Time Nelson Piquet Jr 1:23.315 Ernesto Viso +0.117 Alexandre Negrao +0.380 Franck Perera +0.577 Lewis Hamilton +0.680
Wednesday Afternoon Times Driver Time Lewis Hamilton 1:23.510 Nelson Piquet Jr +0.101 Tristan Gommendy +0.222 Clivio Piccione +0.372 Felix Porteiro +0.506
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1 Lewis Hamilton ART GRAND PRIX 1'23.510 28 2 Nelson Piquet Jr. PIQUET SPORTS 1'23.611 25 3 Tristan Gommendy ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1'23.732 28 4 Clivio Piccione DPR DIREXIV 1'23.882 49 5 Felix Porteiro CAMPOS RACING 1'24.016 32 6 Sergio Hernandez DURANGO 1'24.281 27 7 Michael Ammermuller ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1'24.448 42 8 J.M. Lopez SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1'24.503 33 9 Olivier Pla DPR DIREXIV 1'24.549 34 10 Alexandre Premat ART GRAND PRIX 1'24.552 19 11 Nicolas Lapierre ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1'24.666 35 12 Javier Villa RACING ENGINEERING 1'25.043 25 13 Timo Glock BCN COMPETICION 1'25.064 35 14 Adam Carroll RACING ENGINEERING 1'25.127 30 15 Lucas Di Grassi DURANGO 1'25.320 40 16 Gianmaria Bruni TRIDENT RACING 1'25.357 21 17 Fairuz Fauzy SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1'25.384 35 18 Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN COMPETICION 1'25.865 32 19 Ernesto Viso ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1'25.982 23 20 Luca Filippi FMS INTERNATIONAL 1'26.004 30 21 Franck Perera DAMS 1'26.059 38 22 Ferdinando Monfardini DAMS 1'26.097 45 23 Adrian Valles CAMPOS RACING 1'26.184 38 24 Alexandre Negrao PIQUET SPORTS 1'26.197 32 25 Jason Tahinci FMS INTERNATIONAL 1'27.944 38 26 Andreas Zuber TRIDENT RACING no time 0
Perera leads at lunchtime on Day 2 in Barcelona 29/03/2006 Franck Perera has finished this morning's GP2 series test session as the fastest man on the track for Dams.
An exciting morning of action at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain has seen Franck Perera finish the session with the quickest lap. As is usual at Barcelona, the first hour of the test produced some of the quickest laptimes, with Perera setting his best after 45 minutes of the session on a 1:22.467 for Dams.
With just ten minutes of the session gone this morning, Lewis Hamilton set what was an all-time GP2 series best of 1:23.003 for ART Grand Prix, but with a number of drivers on very quick laps, his time looked certain to be bettered. And so it was that as the half hour mark came around, Ernesto Viso put his iSport International car at the top of the times by 0.3 seconds on a 1:22.755. Viso's lead lasted just another 15 monutes before Perera set his laptime... one that was never bettered throughout the session.
Alexandre Premat finished the morning in fourth place for ART Grand Prix, ahead of his compatriot Nicolas Lapierre of Arden International. The top six was rounded out by another Frenchman, Tristan Gommendy who further highlighted the pace of the iSport International squad. Alexandre Negrao continued his great run of late with the seventh fastest time for Piquet Sports, with Adrian Valles again placing in the top ten in eighth for Campos Racing. Jose Maria Lopez finished ninth for Super Nova International at the track where he scored his sole GP2 series victory in 2005, with Ferdinando Monfardini taking tenth spot for Dams.
In a very competitive session, the drivers all pushed to their limits, with some of them finding the absolute edge of adhesion. Andres Zuber had the most notable off of the session, ending his morning in the barriers after a big shunt. While Andreas himself is fine, it is thought unlikely that his car will be repaired in time for this afternoon's session. Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1 Franck Perera DAMS 1:22.467 33 2 Ernesto Viso ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1:22.755 30 3 Lewis Hamilton ART GRAND PRIX 1:23.003 29 4 Alexandre Premat ART GRAND PRIX 1:23.148 16 5 Nicolas Lapierre ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1:23.261 35 6 Tristan Gommendy ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1:23.290 22 7 Alexandre Negrao PIQUET SPORTS 1:23.428 37 8 Adrian Valles CAMPOS RACING 1:23.541 26 9 J.M. Lopez SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1:23.558 36 10 Ferdinando Monfardini DAMS 1:23.565 23 11 Nelson Piquet Jr. PIQUET SPORTS 1:23.571 47 12 Olivier Pla DPR DIREXIV 1:23.755 33 13 Felix Porteiro CAMPOS RACING 1:23.792 23 14 Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN COMPETICION 1:23.835 30 15 Clivio Piccione DPR DIREXIV 1:24.026 22 16 Lucas Di Grassi DURANGO 1:24.047 28 17 Javier Villa RACING ENGINEERING 1:24.069 31 18 Sergio Hernandez DURANGO 1:24.172 23 19 Michael Ammermuller ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1:24.199 38 20 Andreas Zuber TRIDENT RACING 1:24.316 18 21 Adam Carroll RACING ENGINEERING 1:24.392 32 22 Fairuz Fauzy SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1:24.406 30 23 Luca Filippi FMS INTERNATIONAL 1:24.889 28 24 Timo Glock BCN COMPETICION 1:25.073 18 25 Gianmaria Bruni TRIDENT RACING 1:25.158 21 26 Jason Tahinci FMS INTERNATIONAL 1:25.561 38
1 Ernesto Viso ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1'23.432 14 2 Nelson Piquet Jr. PIQUET SPORTS 1'23.566 21 3 Alexandre Negrao PIQUET SPORTS 1'23.695 23 4 Franck Perera DAMS 1'23.892 29 5 Lewis Hamilton ART GRAND PRIX 1'23.995 28 6 Michael Ammermuller ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1'24.228 25 7 Nicolas Lapierre ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1'24.237 16 8 Clivio Piccione DPR DIREXIV 1'24.255 24 9 J.M. Lopez SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1'24.489 19 10 Adrian Valles CAMPOS RACING 1'24.570 22 11 Ferdinando Monfardini DAMS 1'24.665 27 12 Olivier Pla DPR DIREXIV 1'24.696 20 13 Andreas Zuber TRIDENT RACING 1'24.721 15 14 Tristan Gommendy ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1'25.022 22 15 Fairuz Fauzy SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1'25.794 16 16 Lucas Di Grassi DURANGO 1'25.827 35 17 Felix Porteiro CAMPOS RACING 1'25.948 27 18 Timo Glock BCN COMPETICION 1'25.968 15 19 Javier Villa RACING ENGINEERING 1'25.973 5 20 Sergio Hernandez DURANGO 1'26.026 16 21 Luca Filippi FMS INTERNATIONAL 1'26.041 17 22 Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN COMPETICION 1'26.065 10 23 Gianmaria Bruni TRIDENT RACING 1'26.731 14 24 Alexandre Premat ART GRAND PRIX 1'27.172 9 25 Jason Tahinci FMS INTERNATIONAL 1'28.558 21 26 Adam Carroll RACING ENGINEERING no time
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1 Nelson Piquet Jr. PIQUET SPORTS 1:23.315 29 2 J.M. Lopez SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1:24.147 25 3 Ernesto Viso ISPORT INTERNATIONAL 1:24.163 31 4 Lewis Hamilton ART GRAND PRIX 1:24.453 24 5 Ferdinando Monfardini DAMS 1:24.751 31 6 Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN COMPETICION 1:24.798 17 7 Gianmaria Bruni TRIDENT RACING 1:24.875 27 8 Franck Perera DAMS 1:24.884 29 9 Alexandre Negrao PIQUET SPORTS 1:24.893 48 10 Clivio Piccione DPR DIREXIV 1:24.920 27 11 Lucas Di Grassi DURANGO 1:25.012 35 12 Nicolas Lapierre ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1:25.052 31 13 Alexandre Premat ART GRAND PRIX 1:25.100 27 14 Adrian Valles CAMPOS RACING 1:25.240 27 15 Andreas Zuber TRIDENT RACING 1:25.307 40 16 Adam Carroll RACING ENGINEERING 1:25.324 21 17 Sergio Hernandez DURANGO 1:25.366 26 18 Timo Glock BCN COMPETICION 1:25.399 17 19 Michael Ammermuller ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 1:25.626 31 20 Fairuz Fauzy SUPER NOVA INTERNATIONAL 1:25.679 24 21 Felix Porteiro CAMPOS RACING 1:25.867 21 22 Olivier Pla DPR DIREXIV 1:25.894 11 23 Luca Filippi FMS INTERNATIONAL 1:26.083 21 24 Javier Villa RACING ENGINEERING 1:26.639 32 25 Jason Tahinci FMS INTERNATIONAL 1:29.321 14 26 Tristan Gommendy ISPORT INTERNATIONAL no time
Lehet, hogy Nelsinho megy majd :DDD Milyen szép is lenne! Na legyünk azért reálisak :( Majd vmi összejön neki is, először a GP2-t kellene megnyernie, ami idén sikerülni fog:D
2006-03-18 00:00 Utolsó módosítás: 2006-03-18 13:04 Olasz sajtóhír szerint a MotoGP-ben évek óta egyeduralkodó Valentino Rossi a GP2-ben szerepel majd, mielőtt a Ferrari versenyzőjeként bemutatkozik a Formula-1-ben.
Legalábbis erre a következtetésre jutott a Gazzetta dello Sport, miután megkérdezte Ross Brawnt, a Ferrari technikai igazgatóját a motorsport klasszisának F-1-es esélyeiről.
"A GP2 ideális felkészülést nyújt a feltörekvő tehetségek számára" - mondta a szakember.
Rossi a számos korábbi ferraris teszt ellenére még nem rendelkezik még elegendő tapasztalattal az együléses versenyautókról. A klasszis pedig nem tudna eleget gyakorolni a maranellóiakkal, mert a csapat szintén elfogadta a tesztelések korlátozásáról szóló megállapodást.
A Formula-3000-es nemzetközi bajnokság örökébe lépett GP2-es sorozat a Formula-1 egyik előszobájának számít, számos közös versenyük van.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1 PIQUET Piquet Sports 1:12.716 38 2 HAMILTON ART Grand Prix 1:12.736 34 3 ZUBER Trident Racing 1:12.851 63 4 YOSHIMOTO BCN Competicion 1:12.888 26 5 VALLES Campos Racing 1:12.988 35 6 PREMAT ART Grand Prix 1:12.995 38 7 LAPIERRE Arden International 1:13.135 31 8 FAUZY Super Nova International 1:13.195 33 9 CARROLL Racing Engineering 1:13.243 30 10 MONFARDINI DAMS 1:13.272 40 11 AMMERMULLER Arden International 1:13.491 25 12 LOPEZ Super Nova International 1:13.528 16 13 BRUNI Trident Racing 1:13.530 54 14 DI GRASSI Durango 1:13.531 27 15 PLA DPR Direxiv 1:13.540 42 16 PERERA DAMS 1:13.547 33 17 GOMMENDY iSport International 1:13.634 29 18 NEGRAO Piquet Sports 1:13.670 21 19 FILIPPI FMS International 1:13.785 39 20 HERNANDEZ Durango 1:13.834 35 21 VILLA Racing Engineering 1:13.885 24 22 PICCIONE DPR Direxiv 1:13.898 49 23 VISO iSport International 1:14.170 30
Azért Negrao eredménye meglepő, ha azt nézzük, hogy a tavalyi szezonban nagyon nem volt jó. Legalább is a csapattárshoz képest. De azért gratu. Megnyugtató, hogy mindkét Piquet Sportos ott van az első 5-ben.
