Franck Perera showed that he had few qualms about jumping from a
GP2 Series car to one in the World Series by Renault and then back again as he set the pace on the final day of this week's Paul Ricard group test.
The Frenchman topped the times during the morning session, with a 1min 13.595secs best, and saw that hold off the impressive Luca Filippi during the afternoon. Perera's effort - he was second quickest during the later session - completed a good test for Durango, after Filippi had topped both sessions on day one, but came under scrutiny from the Italian on day two, following his switch to Arden International.
Filippi boosted his profile after a disappointing maiden campaign in 2006, running in the top three throughout the test, despite working with two different teams. Third fastest during the morning, he improved, marginally, to 1min 13.827secs after lunch, but could not quite find the handful of tenths required to dislodge Perera from the combined top spot.
Giorgio Pantano split the leading pair during the morning session, keeping Campos Racing at the head of the field, but did not feature after the midday break - or in the combined times - having had all his times taken away after his car was found to be underweight.
That allowed Arden to celebrate a strong showing, as it finished the test on a high with Bruno Senna classified as the top rookie of the afternoon, the Brazilian taking third place.
Antonio Pizzonia finished the afternoon session in fourth place, with Nicolas Lapierre fifth for new employer DAMS, but the morning session proved to be the quicker of the two, with the top six all ducking under 1min 14secs. Javier Villa was again in impressive form for Racing Engineering, taking fourth spot, with Jose Maria Lopez fifth for BCN Competicion, ahead of Kohei Hirate, who headed the times posted by drivers new to
GP2 this winter.
Lopez was again in the top six for BCN after lunch, while
GP2 returnee Borja Garcia - pipped to the WSbR title last weekend - was seventh for iSport International. Xandi Negrao continued his strong post-season form in eighth best time in the afternoon, putting him ahead of the consistent Hirate and debutant Paul di Resta, the new
F3 Euroseries champion joining Trident Racing alongside the Japanese pilot for the day.
Also appearing for the first time on day two of the test was Kiwi Jonny Reid, who made the most of his A1 Grand Prix connections to run with Super Nova International. Others out for a second stab at
GP2 included Guillaume Moreau (Racing Engineering), Roldan Rodriguez (Campos), Dominick Muermans (Durango) and Tomas Kostka (Piquet Sports), but all featured in the lower reaches of the times. Current Spanish
F3 points leader Ricardo Risatti, meanwhile, took tenth spot in the earlier session with BCN.
ART Grand Prix was again missing from the times, following its decision to can its test plans following the death of engineer Steeve Marcel, costing Ernesto Viso a run with the reigning champions.
The teams will now make their way to Jerez, where the next test kicks off in just over a week's time.
Leading performances (1 November) Paul Ricard:Franck Perera Durango
1min 13.595s 1min 13.837s 36/36
Luca Filippi Arden International
1min 13.851s 1min 13.630s 39/36
Javier Villa Racing Engineering
1min 13.856s 1min 14.439s 29/28
Bruno Senna Arden International
1min 14.643s 1min 13.871s 38/33
Jose Maria Lopez BCN Competicion
1min 13.879s 1min 14.203 29/40
Kohei Hirate Trident Racing
1min 13.928s 1min 14.309s 19/35
Antonio Pizzonia Petrol Ofisi FMS International
1min 14.053s 1min 14.123s 48/31
Kaziki Nakajima DAMS
1min 14.086s 1min 14.466s 45/33
Nicolas Lapierre DAMS
1min 14.393s 1min 14.138s 43/25
Borja Garcia iSport International
1min 14.496s 1min 14.275s 41/26
Alexandre Negrao Piquet Sports
1min 14.532s 1min 14.276s 39/35
Ricardo Risatti BCN Competicion
1min 14.412s 1min 15.083s 29/19
Paul Di Resta Trident Racing
1min 15.403s 1min 14.429s 59/52
Tomas Kostka Piquet Sports
1min 14.572s 1min 16.129s 39/35
Hiroki Yoshimoto Super Nova International
1min 14.596s 1min 14.851s 37/29
Guillaume Moreau Racing Engineering
1min 14.606s 1min 14.687s 37/35
Vitaly Petrov Petrol Ofisi FMS International
1min 14.728s 1min 15.063s 38/30
Mike Conway DPR
1min 14.921s 1min 15.074s 45/24
Christian Bakkerud iSport International
1min 15.022s 1min 15.770s 33/11
Roldan Rodriguez Campos Racing
1min 15.855s 1min 15.164s 29/39
Dominick Muermans Durango
1min 16.446s 1min 15.420s 47/37
Jonny Reid Super Nova International
1min 15.433s 1min 15.458s 31/29
Michael Patrizi DPR
1min 16.275s 1min 16.682s 38/30
Giorgio Pantano Campos Racing
Times disallowed for being underweight