Bird quickest in GP2 practice

Date published : 08 Jul 2011 - 10:44:08

Sam Bird topped the GP2 free practice session at Silverstone on Friday morning, edging championship leader Romain Grosjean.The Briton sat in second place behind Grosjean (DAMS) for much of the second half of the session, and he then moved to the top of the times with two minutes remaining.Any hopes the Frenchman had of toppling Bird on the iSport driver's home track were then scuppered when Grosjean spun exiting Copse corner on his next lap.Behind the top two, Marcus Ericsson put in an impressive lap late in the session to put both iSport cars in the top three, while AirAsia's Davide Valsecchi was another to improve towards the end to get himself up to fourth.Luca Filippi was one of the few drivers to bother with much running in the first half of the session, when the track dried quickly. Most went out on wet weather tyres when the pitlane opened, but the track was suitable for slicks after just a couple of minutes.Title contender Giedo van der Garde (Addax) had an eventful session and ended up with the eighth fastest time. He was on course to improve on that as the chequered flag came out, but he ran wide exiting Stowe and crashed heavily on the inside of the track.The Dutchman had already had one near miss when he had been forced into the gravel at Club trying to avoid a slower car on his inside.Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sam Bird iSport 1m41.763s 2. Romain Grosjean DAMS 1m41.936s + 0.173s 3. Marcus Ericsson iSport 1m42.293s + 0.530s 4. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia 1m42.305s + 0.542s 5. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m42.577s + 0.814s 6. Esteban Gutierrez ART 1m42.668s + 0.905s 7. Max Chilton Carlin 1m42.787s + 1.024s 8. Giedo van der Garde Addax 1m42.794s + 1.031s 9. Luiz Razia AirAsia 1m42.840s + 1.077s10. Jules Bianchi ART 1m42.933s + 1.170s11. Charles Pic Addax 1m42.949s + 1.186s12. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1m42.978s + 1.215s13. Michael Herck Coloni 1m43.093s + 1.330s14. Fabio Leimer Rapax 1m43.128s + 1.365s15. Stefano Coletti Trident 1m43.250s + 1.487s16. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m43.291s + 1.528s17. Julian Leal Rapax 1m43.544s + 1.781s18. Pal Varhaug DAMS 1m43.574s + 1.811s19. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident 1m43.614s + 1.851s20. Jolyon Palmer Arden 1m43.616s + 1.853s21. Josef Kral Arden 1m43.737s + 1.974s22. Kevin Ceccon Coloni 1m44.053s + 2.290s23. Johnny Cecotto Ocean 1m44.188s + 2.425s24. Alvaro Parente Carlin 1m44.316s + 2.553s25. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova 1m44.389s + 2.626s26. Kevin Mirocha Ocean 1m46.477s + 4.714s