Luca Filippi quickest in Abu Dhabi Free Practice

Last November during the opening round of the third season of the GP2 Asia Series at the Yas Marina Circuit, Luca Filippi showed an impressive pace, setting up the track record in a 1:51.415. Today, on the same track, the Meritus driver once again set the pace during Free Practice of the second round of the Asia Series. The Italian clocked his best laptime in a 1:54.146 at the chequered flag.

Luca Filippi (ITA, Meritus) stops on track Credit: Drew Gibson/GP2 Media

The session started at twilight on an extremely dirty track and with sand still up in the air following a sandstorm today in Abu Dhabi. Arden’s Charles Pic rapidly topped the timesheet, but his laptime was soon bettered by Daniele Zampieri at Rapax.

Twelve minutes into the session, Alberto Valerio lost control of his Coloni car and hit the barrier leaving the Marshalls to try and get the nose cone stuck under it for over twenty minutes. At that time Zampieri was leading Michael Herck, Vladimir Arabadzhiev and Giedo van der Garde.

The session was eventually restarted for fifteen minutes. Soon enough, Filippi was fastest only to be bettered first by Sergio Perez, then by Giacomo Ricci and finally by Pic. Taking a lot of risks in the third sector, Ocean’s Fabio Leimer climbed to P2, but the battle for quickest was on between Filippi, Series leader Davide Valsecchi and Pic.

With two minutes left on the clock, Filippi claimed the top spot following an impressive third sector. Pic tried to deny him that result, but unfortunately pushed a bit too hard and lost his car in the last corner. Joining the fight in the last seconds of the session, ART’s Sam Bird claimed P2, but Valsecchi would not want to be left unnoticed and set what he thought would be the quickest laptime at the chequered flag. However, Filippi was on a mission: a few seconds later, he set the record straight and would not lose the top spot again.

The qualifying session will start tonight at 8:30pm local time.

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