Bratt climbs GP2 test table (From The Oxford Times)

Bratt climbs GP2 test table

9:06am Friday 13th November 2009 in Sport

GP2 Series rookie Will Bratt capped off his official test outing at Paul Ricard in France with a superb front-running effort – the Briton posting the fifth fastest time in the morning of the final day before improving to fourth quickest in the afternoon.

Marking the last time category runners will be on track until the second race meeting of the 2009/2010 GP2 Asia series in early February, the 21-year-old Party Poker Racing-supported driver from Banbury completed just shy of 200 laps over the course of the three-day test and made progress along the way.

Steering his Renault-powered Dallara to a quickest lap of 1m 12.675 seconds this morning, just 0.159 seconds shy of the session’s best, Bratt went on to lap with a fastest time of 1m 12.835 seconds in the afternoon to conclude the final session of the year in fourth position.

Speaking after the final day’s testing, Bratt said: “I’m pretty happy with how the Paul Ricard test has gone for us, it’s just a shame we weren’t able to hook the sectors up today as we should have been faster.

“Finishing in the top five this morning and fourth this afternoon is great but it could have been better still. Even so, we’ve made very good progress and it’s been a fantastic way to end a phenomenal year.”

The steps made by Bratt throughout the week, working closely with the PartyPokerRacing.com Scuderia Coloni engineers, put the icing on the cake for 2009 – a memorable year in which the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star matched academic success, a degree in History from Oxford University, with multiple race wins and championship victory in Euroseries 3000.

With the test outing the final GP2 run of the year, Bratt has a 12-week break from competitive action until the GP2 Asia Series resumes at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Friday, February 5, and Saturday, February 6, 2010.