HILMER RACING DRIVER CONFIRMS TOP FORM ON DAY 2 OF PRE-SEASON TEST SESSION

Once again, Tom Dillmann put newcomers Hilmer Motorsport on top in Jerez as the GP2 Series teams prepare for the 2013 season. On the second day of the first pre-season test session at Circuito de Jerez, the Frenchman set the quickest laptime in the morning with a 1:24.400. Stéphane Richelmi at DAMS was fastest in the afternoon.

The morning session kicked off under blue skies but in cold temperatures. James Calado was the early pace setter whilst Felipe Nasr was the first driver to dip under 1m25s. The proceedings were briefly halted after Marcus Ericsson lost control of his DAMS car and got stuck into the gravel bed at Turn 10. Following the restart, a second red flag occurred for a short period, courtesy of Nathanaël Berthon who spun and stopped on track. The session was disrupted again for a few moments after the pitlane reopened as Nasr had a bit of a scare at Turn 3.

As proceedings resumed, Dillmann claimed the top spot, but an incident between Daniel Abt and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs sent everyone back into the pits to wait for the green light. The remainder of the session was trouble-free, and Calado went top, two tenths quicker than Dillmann, but the Frenchman found some extra pace and set a laptime of 1:24.400 that would never be bettered until the chequered flag. Stefano Coletti finished a hair’s breadth off Dillmann’s best laptime (0.01s) followed by Calado, Fabio Leimer, Nasr, Ericsson, Richelmi, Sergio Canamasas, Kevin Giovesi and Rene Binder.

The afternoon session opened in cooler temperatures as grey clouds gathered above the Spanish track. Dillmann was the early pace setter and remained at the top of the timesheet for most of the incident-free session as drivers concentrated mainly on long runs. With one hour left on the clock, Richelmi set a laptime of 1:24.604 – three tenths better than Dillmann’s. In the dying minutes, Coletti ran wide at Turn 1. After a brief red flag period, the track was live again. Although Johnny Cecotto and Abt improved their afternoon’s best laptime, Richelmi retained top spot ahead of Dillmann. In fifth, Robin Frijns was the best rookie ahead of Ericsson, Pal Varhaug, Canamasas, Jake Rosenzweig and Simon Trummer.

Tomorrow’s session will start again at 9am local time.

Morning results

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Tom Dillmann

Hilmer Motorsport

1:24.400

19

2.

Stefano Coletti

Rapax

1:24.418

26

3.

James Calado

ART Grand Prix

1:24.525

33

4.

Fabio Leimer

Racing Engineering

1:24.534

28

5.

Felipe Nasr

Carlin

1:24.691

25

6.

Marcus Ericsson

DAMS

1:24.712

23

7.

Stéphane Richelmi

DAMS

1:24.776

34

8.

Sergio Canamasas

Caterham Racing

1:24.963

33

9.

Kevin Giovesi

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:24.967

23

10.

Rene Binder

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:24.976

24

11.

Simon Trummer

Rapax

1:25.023

19

12.

Nathanaël Berthon

Trident Racing

1:25.059

18

13.

Jake Rosenzweig

Barwa Addax Team

1:25.243

27

14.

Mitch Evans

Arden International

1:25.258

27

15.

Jolyon Palmer

Carlin

1:25.310

31

16.

Robin Frijns

Trident Racing

1:25.345

25

17.

Pal Varhaug

Hilmer Motorsport

1:25.402

28

18.

Julian Leal

Racing Engineering

1:25.486

32

19.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs

MP Motorsport

1:25.604

28

20.

Johnny Cecotto

Arden International

1:25.607

28

21.

Ma Qing Hua

Caterham Racing

1:25.800

26

22.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:25.858

25

23.

Daniel Abt

ART Grand Prix

1:25.893

8

24.

Rio Haryanto

Barwa Addax Team

1:26.610

30

Afternoon results

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Stéphane Richelmi

DAMS

1:24.604

37

2.

Tom Dillmann

Hilmer Motorsport

1:24.932

18

3.

Johnny Cecotto

Arden International

1:25.292

22

4.

Daniel Abt

ART Grand Prix

1:25.312

30

5.

Robin Frijns

Trident Racing

1:25.335

22

6.

Marcus Ericsson

DAMS

1:25.388

32

7.

Pal Varhaug

Hilmer Motorsport

1:25.391

42

8.

Sergio Canamasas

Caterham Racing

1:25.618

31

9.

Jake Rosenzweig

Barwa Addax Team

1:25.677

33

10.

Simon Trummer

Rapax

1:25.685

49

11.

Nathanaël Berthon

Trident Racing

1:25.725

16

12.

Kevin Giovesi

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:25.920

33

13.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs

MP Motorsport

1:25.925

18

14.

Stefano Coletti

Rapax

1:26.022

29

15.

Ma Qing Hua

Caterham Racing

1:26.096

37

16.

James Calado

ART Grand Prix

1:26.116

21

17.

Mitch Evans

Arden International

1:26.374

38

18.

Rio Haryanto

Barwa Addax Team

1:26.462

41

19.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:27.075

22

20.

Rene Binder

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:28.039

29

21.

Julian Leal

Racing Engineering

1:28.793

43

22.

Fabio Leimer

Racing Engineering

1:29.189

38

23.

Jolyon Palmer

Carlin

1:29.596

27

24.

Felipe Nasr

Carlin

1:29.749

33