There was 2 half hour sessions for the drivers this morning split by a gap of only 30 minutes, leaving little room for error, in a crammed and hectic schedule.
With most drivers opting to do an installation lap, first to post a time in the first session was Super Nova driver Fairuz Fauzy.
The first incident of any note occured half way through the session when isport driver Marcus Ericsson stopped at turn 5 bringing out the yellow flags. At this time Frenchman Jules Bianchi was quickest, 1'30"30 followed by Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez and fellow Lotus ART driver Esteban Gutierrez.
First to dip under the 1'30 and 6 tenths fastter than Bianchi on a 1'29"7 was Ocean Racings Andrea Caldarelli.
With 10 minutes left on the clock Giedo Van Der Garde shot upto P2 just 0.15 seconds slower than Caldarelli. At this point there was an uncharacteristically large pread over the field with the top 10 being covered by a full 2 seconds.
6 minutes to go, was when Van Der Garde hit the front, which is where he would stay until the end of the session, boasting a time of 1'29"09. so with 5 minutes to go it was Van Der Garde, Fabio Leimer, Caldarelli, Stefano Coletti and Julian Leal in the top 5.
Romain Grosjean brought out the yellow flags at turn 6 after a misdemeanor on track with a few minutes remaining.
In the dying seconds Mikhail Aleshin and Gutierrez managed to improve moving up to P2 and P4 respectively.
With only a half hour break between the 2 sessions the isport International and Dams teams were unable to repair the damage done to Ericsson and Grosjeans car meaning they would go into this afternoons qualifying session with very little experience of the new Imola layout.
Ericssons team mate, Brit Sam Bird showed he meant business right from the start in session 2, after being slowest in the previous session, he went stright into the top ten and was the first to break the 1'28 mark with 17 minutes remaining.
With all drivers having now learned the track the spread of times through the field was much less and at the mid point of the session the top 14 drivers were separated by just 1 second.
Mexican Gutierrez lost control at turn 6 damaging his bodywork, and thus bringing out the yellow flags, in the last few minutes depriving the rest of the field chance to improve their times.
Session 2 times:
1. Sam Bird - Isport International 1'28"31
2. Giedo Van Der Garde - Barwa Addax Team 1'28"51
3. Fabio Leimer - Rapax 1'28"56
4. Stefano Coletti - Trident Racing 1'28"58
5. Dani Clos - Racing Engineering 1'28"58
6. Davide Valsecchi - Team Air Asia 1'28"64
7. Max Chilton - Carlin 1'28"69
8. Michael Herck - Scuderia Coloni 1'28"76
9. Pal Varhaug - Dams 1'28"89
10. Nathanael Berthon - Racing Engineering 1'28"90
11. Johnny Cecotto - Super Nova Racing 1'28"93
12. Josef Kral - Arden International 1'29"08
13. Charles Pic - Barwa Addax Team 1'29"26
14. Fairuz Fauzy - Super Nova Racing 1'29"29
15. Mikhail Aleshin - Carlin 1'29"29
16. Luiz Razia - Team Air Asia 1'29"34
17. Jolyon Palmer - Arden International 1'29"41
18. Esteban Gutierrez - Lotus ART 1'29"43
19. Rodolfo Gonzalez - Trident Racing 1'29"67
20. Jules Bianchi - Lotus ART 1.29"76
21. Andrea Caldarelli - Ocean Racing Technology 1'29"88
22. Oliver Turvey - Ocean Racing Technology 1'29"92
23. Julian Leal - Rapax 1'30"42
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