Luca Filippi made it a strong second day for new boys Qi-Meritus.Mahara in Dubai testing ahead of the start of the inaugural 2008 GP2 Asia Series, by clocking the quickest time of all 26 drivers present in the morning session.
The Italian, a GP2 veteran of 39 starts, one victory and two pole positions, actually achieved the fastest lap of the day as the sun beat down on the Dubai Autodrome affording considerably higher grip levels on day two having been cleaned following last week's uncharacteristic heavy rainfall though his afternoon effort was only' good enough for seventh place. Continuing to focus on the team's intensive programme before the all-new campaign gets underway this coming weekend, he professed himself content with his day's work.
I'm happy with my times and the results, the 22-year-old stated, but there is still room for improvement. We are only just starting to understand the new car and which directions we need to take to develop our working programme so that the team can progress quicker.
I would also like to be able to compare my times to Hiroki's [Yoshimoto team-mate], when the electronics of the new safety system are finally sorted out. In the afternoon, a technical issue affected our gear-shifting and slowed our times; I didn't get a chance to try to do a good lap time.
We still have one set of spare tyres to work from for the two remaining days of testing, and we can still improve a bit. We will be ready by Friday for the start of the first weekend of the season.
In contrast to Filippi who covered 67 laps over the course of the day Yoshimoto was less fortunate, being hampered by both red flags and a software problem causing a faulty throttle map that restricted his running to just 35 laps. The Japanese nevertheless ended day two less than seven tenths of a second adrift of his team-mate's afternoon time.
![Luca Filippi testing for GP2 newcomers Qi-Meritus.Mahara in Dubai ahead of the inaugural GP2 Asia Series in 2008 [pic credit: GP2 Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/403175.jpg)
