28/06/2006
NEWS STORY
Jose Marķa Lopez has finished the all-important mid-season GP2 series test with the fastest time of the two day session for Super Nova International. The Argentine, who set his fastest lap in this morning's session, was followed in the overall times by Nelson Piquet Jr who took his Piquet Sports entry to within five hundredths of a second of Lopez's time to finish on top of the individual times this afternoon.
Third in the classification was Timo Glock. The German has had something of a resurgence since switching to iSport International, and after finishing yesterday as the quickest driver of all, he continued to show his pace with a best overall lap just one tenth behind Lopez. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only muster the 11th fastest time of the test.
The test, which took place on the 2.394 mile '3D' track formation at the Paul Ricard HTTT complex, was the first opportunity for the teams to run any serious testing programmes, other than in race weekend practice sessions, since the 2006 season began in April.
In 2005, the mid-season test proved to be the turning point of the season for the eventual champions ART Grand Prix and Nico Rosberg, who until that point had not won a race.
The GP2 series now moves on to Magny-Cours in two weeks' time for Round Seven of the 2006 season.