Testing for the 2007 GP2 season got underway at Paul Ricard yesterday but the day was shortened by bad weather. However, there were some upsets for traditional frontrunners ART, Arden and Minardi Piquet Sports - the fastest time from the triumverate was Lucas di Grassi’s 9th for ART.

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F1 refugees Giorgio Pantano, Timo Glock and Antonio Pizzonia set the three fastest times for Campos, iSport and FMS respectively, while Javi Villa claimed an impressive fourth fastest time for Racing Engineering. Franck Perera, driving for the Spanish team for the first time, was sixth fastest.

Narain Karthikeyan and Neel Jani will rejoin Team India and Team Switzerland respectively for this weekend’s A1GP round at Durban. Jani returns after recovering from an injury picked up during Champ Car testing.

“The problem that I encountered with my hand and my fingers is resolved,” said Jani, “and I am really ready and fit for the start of the weekend.”

Sebastien Buemi drove for Switzerland at Eastern Creek.

Another F1 refugee, Jos Verstappen, will not be driving in Champ Car in 2007.

“We’ve been working on this for three months now and we’re tired of waiting,” Verstappen told his personal website.

“There is interest from a couple of teams but nobody is making a deal. We haven’t heard from the interested teams so now it’s over for me.”

The Dutch driver withdrew from the A1GP series shortly before the first race at Zandvoort due to financial issues, provoking anger from Dutch fans.

Scott Speed’s presence on the 2007 F1 grid looks increasingly likely as he was featured in a Red Bull promotional film that will be shown in Melbourne.str_film.jpg

The film features Red Bull Racing drivers David Coulthard and Mark Webber, along with Toro Rosso drivers Tonio Liuzzi and Speed. Filming took place in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.