Stefano Coletti leads the way in Spa

Stefano Coletti leads the way in Spa—
 
Monegasque driver back on top in free practice—
 
GP2 Series leader Stefano Coletti set the quickest laptime of today’s free practice session in Spa-Francorchamps. In the dying minutes, the Monegasque driver edged James Calado out of the top spot with a time of 1:58.386, a shy five hundredths quicker than the Brit. Fabio Leimer completed the top three.
 
The 2013 GP2 season resumed this morning in Belgium after a four week summer break. The session opened in cool temperatures and on a drying track following morning-long drizzle. The twenty-six drivers fed to the track as the pitlane opened on the Hard compounds. Alexander Rossi was quick to set the early pace, but it was Robin Frijns who was the first driver to break under the 2min barrier. The Dutchman who is back at the wheel of the Hilmer car this weekend improved on Rossi’s laptime by nine tenths. Frijns went even quicker on his following attempt and lapped the 7.004km track in 1:59.126.
 
At mid-session, Leimer found some extra pace to set a laptime of 1:58.581, half a second quicker than Frijns. Calado was also on a mission and moved up to P2 but he was dropped to third after Stéphane Richelmi improved on the Brit’s laptime. With ten minutes left on the clock, Calado put his head down and claimed the top spot going one tenth quicker than the Swiss, but in the dying minutes Coletti was able to go even quicker and finished the session at the top of the timesheet.
 
Behind the top three, Tom Dillmann was once again quick and claimed fourth ahead of Frijns, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Richelmi, Marcus Ericsson, Julian Lean and last race winner Nathanaël Berthon. The forecast expects that it should be dry for today’s qualifying session, but the weather is never predictable in the Ardennes…
 
Spa-Francorchamps – Free Practice
 
Driver
Team
Laptime
Laps
1.
Stefano Coletti
Rapax
1:58.386
12
2.
James Calado
ART Grand Prix
1:58.445
10
3.
Fabio Leimer
Racing Engineering
1:58.581
11
4.
Tom Dillmann
RUSSIAN TIME
1:58.864
11
5.
Robin Frijns
Hilmer Motorsport
1:58.903
11
6.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
Hilmer Motorsport
1:58.987
12
7.
Stéphane Richelmi
DAMS
1:59.057
10
8.
Marcus Ericsson
DAMS
1:59.131
10
9.
Julian Leal
Racing Engineering
1:59.168
11
10.
Nathanaël Berthon
Trident Racing
1:59.201
12
11.
Alexander Rossi
EQ8 Caterham Racing
1:59.405
12
12.
Felipe Nasr
Carlin
1:59.407
12
13.
Sam Bird
RUSSIAN TIME
1:59.447
12
14.
Sergio Canamasas
EQ8 Caterham Racing
1:59.500
13
15.
Mitch Evans
Arden International
1:59.575
9
16.
Johnny Cecotto
Arden International
1:59.650
11
17.
Dani Clos
MP Motorsport
1:59.685
12
18.
Vittorio Ghirelli
Venezuela GP Lazarus
1:59.748
12
19
Rene Binder
Venezuela GP Lazarus
1:59.753
10
20.
Daniel De Jong
MP Motorsport
1:59.891
11
21.
Jolyon Palmer
Carlin
2:00.162
12
22.
Simon Trummer
Rapax
2:00.278
11
23.
Daniel Abt
ART Grand Prix
2:00.290
9
24.
Jake Rosenzweig
Barwa Addax Team
2:00.375
11
25.
Rio Haryanto
Barwa Addax Team
2:00.407
11
26.
Ricardo Teixeira
Trident Racing
2:01.300
10