Racing Engineering conclude a productive end of season test at Jerez

24/11/12 Racing Engineering conclude a productive end of season test at Jerez.

Foggy conditions greeted the GP2 teams for the Thursday morning session and poor visibility...

Foggy conditions greeted the GP2 teams for the Thursday morning session and poor visibility saw the red flag delaying proceedings for 10 minutes. Many teams waited for the sun to appear and clear the remaining fog before they took to the track.

Nigel Melker and René Binder were driving the two Racing Engineering cars for the day and after completing 20 laps Nigel was 12th fastest with a fastest lap of 1:27.664s with René just four tenths of a second slower with a lap of 1:28.034s for 21st position.

The afternoon session saw sunny conditions, although lap times were generally similar to the morning. Nigel again completed 20 laps, improving his lap time slightly to 1:27.645, whilst René was also a little quicker on 1:27.900s after 29 laps leaving the pair 17th and 21st fastest respectively.

The second day of testing saw Fabio Leimer, Racing Engineering’s regular 2012 GP2 Series driver, replacing René Binder in the Spanish team’s Dallara as the GP2 cars took to the Jerez track under sunny skies.

The familiarity of the teams and drivers to the prevailing conditions at Jerez meant that times were a little faster than they had been in Thursday’s two sessions. Fabio was able to complete 30 laps and set the 12th fastest time with a best lap of 1:26.569s whilst Nigel’s 29 laps saw him set a time of 1:27.165s, improving his quickest time from yesterday by nearly half a second.

The majority of the teams opted to run race distances in the afternoon meaning that times were a little slower than they had been in the morning. Fabio was, as expected, amongst the fastest of the drivers finishing 6th with a time of 1:27.312s whist Nigel was just 0.3 seconds slower in 8th with a best lap of 1:27.622s.

The GP2 teams will now take a well-earned break after a hard season but they will be back in action for the first pre-season test of the 2013 season on February 26th, 27th and 28th at Jerez. A second pre-season test session will be held on March 5th 6th and 7th at Barcelona.

Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering: “During the last two test days of the season in Jerez we tested three drivers. Rene Binder drove with us on day 1 and even though he didn't know the track, it was no issue for him after a short period of adapting. We are pleased with his steady progress during the entire day.
After testing with us in Barcelona, we were happy to have Nigel Melker with us for two days in Jerez. This allowed us to work on different technical solutions adapting the car to this track and especially with conditions we usually do not encounter during the season to get a more complete insight into the driver’s preferences in a race car. Nigel finished the test in 8th and Fabio in 6th.
In Fabio's case we pretty much continued where we left it at in Singapore. Although the results were decent, they were not what we are accustomed to during the season, but it was clear that with Fabio in the car we wanted to test some things we don't usually do during a race weekend. We have gathered a lot of information during these two days and we will be busy analysing it in order to continue improving our performance.”