Piquet tops times

Nelson Piquet Jr has declared himself “reasonably happy” with his efforts after emerging quickest from the two-day pre-season test ahead of the 2006 GP2 series.

Piquet, son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson, completed 50 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona in his Piquet Sports car.

Piquet clocked a best time of one minute 23.315 seconds to finish fastest of the 26 drivers on the opening day despite missing the final hour of the session with technical problems.

On day two the Brazilian concentrated on preparing his car for longer runs, racking up 73 laps with a best time of 1:23.571.

“We’ve had another fairly good couple of days,” said Piquet.

“We had limited running yesterday afternoon after we had a few problems but we’ve had a decent amount of time on track and I’m reasonably happy with how it went.

“We only have two more days left of testing now before the first race but the team is working really hard and everything keeps on improving,” he continued.

The A1GP race winner finished the two-day test a little over one-tenth faster than Ernesto Viso in the iSport International entry, while Piquet Sport team-mate Alexandre Negrao finished third overall.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton ended fifth fastest in the ART Grand Prix, clocking a best time of 1:23.995.

The GP2 series now moves to Valencia for the final test session before the opening race of the season at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on April 8.