Patronise F1

With the 2011 GP2 Series only just having finished, the teams were back in action for a two-day test session at the Jerez circuit, as the try-outs for a place in the 2012 championship season kicked off in almost-exciting style.

The thirteen GP2 teams chopped and changed their line-ups throughout the two-day test, as they trialled the usual range of up-and-coming youngsters and grizzled GP2 Series veterans.

The test forms part of a pair of post-season tests, designed to help the teams figure out their 2012 driver line-ups and keep themselves entertained through the final few months of the year with there now being no GP2 Asia Series to take part in.

For this season, teams will not compete in the winter Asia Series, with that championship having been absorbed into the main 2012 series in order to incorporate some of the early-season F1 flyaway GP weekends into an extended GP2 Series calendar.

Day 1

The first day was dominated by Swiss driver Fabio Leimer, who topped both the morning and afternoon sessions of the day for the Racing Engineering team, despite having had an underwhelming 2011 season for Rapax.

The morning session provided the quickest times of the day, with Leimer finishing just 0.009 seconds ahead of permanent GP2 fixture Luca Filippi, who followed up his late-season charge to second place in the championship with an impressive showing for Coloni.

Sam Bird, who raced for iSport in 2011, was third fastest for Rapax, ahead of Johnny Cecotto Jr in one of the Barwa Addax Team cars.

Best of the GP2 rookies was Italian Auto GP driver Fabio Onidi, who ended 5th in the second of the Coloni cars, while Dutch driver Yelmer Buurman, who last raced in the category in the 2009-10 Asia Series, was 6th for Team AirAsia.

In the afternoon, Leimer remained ahead, even if the times were slower, with Buurman moving up to second in a promising return to the category. GP2 mainstay Dani Clos was third for Addax, while GP3 Series champion Valtteri Bottas was 4th fastest for Lotus ART.

His ART GP3 team mate James Calado failed to make the same impression for the Ocean Racing team, ending the morning 14th and the afternoon 16th. But fellow GP3 graduates Antonio Felix da Costa and Nigel Melker got into the top ten in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively.

Day 2

Leimer continued his domination of the test on Thursday, with the Swiss man topping the times once again in the morning running.

He couldn't quite make it a clean sweep of fastest times, as Jules Bianchi ended top of the afternoon session for Lotus ART, but with the afternoon session again proving slower, Leimer ensured that he had the quickest time on both days of the post-season test.

In the morning, his nearest rival was the impressive Onidi, continuing his test run for Coloni, with Melker also impressing in third place for Christian Horner's Arden team. Returning GP2 driver Javier Villa went fourth for Super Nova.

In the afternoon, Bianchi moved ahead, though the times were nowhere near as fast as the morning runs, while Bird took second in the times having switched to the Trident team, ahead of temporary team mate Julian Leal.

GP3 graduate Simon Trummer was fourth for Arden, ahead of Calado - who had switched to ART in place of Bottas for the second day. Renault World Series driver Alexander Rossi finished sixth for AirAsia.

Meanwhile, morning pacesetters Leimer and Onidi could only manage 23rd and 22nd respectively.

The GP2 Series will continue their post-season testing schedule with a second two-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona next month.