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Bahrain, Tests: Jordan King quickest in Day 1

Racing Engineering man tops first pre-season test day at Sakhir

By Franck Drui

1 April 2015 - 17:02

The second GP2 Series pre-season test session opened today at Bahrain International Circuit on a dusty track and in hot temperatures. This week, the teams and drivers will be busy preparing for the 2015 season which sees the introduction of the DRS. Pirelli have selected the Hard and Soft compounds for the three days.

The field remains mostly unchanged with only two new faces joining Hilmer Motorsport this week: GP3 graduate Nick Yelloly partners GP2 returnee Nigel Melker. The last change compared to the first pre-season test session line up sees Sergio Canamasas move to MP Motorsport.

When the pitlane went green, the cars fed onto the track for installation laps. It was rookie Nobuharu Matsushita who set the early pace until André Negrao topped the timing sheets one hour into the session. His laptime was bettered by one tenth by Sergio Canamasas (who moved to MP Motorsport for this week’s session). It was a rather quiet morning as the temperatures kept on rising. With one hour left on the clock, Nathanaël Berthon moved up to P1, but Marco Sorensen went two hundredths quicker to take the top spot. In the final thirty minutes, rookie Norman Nato edged the Carlin man out, but Mitch Evans improved further and topped the timesheet with a laptime of 1:42.479, one tenth better than the Frenchman. At the chequered flag, behind Evans and Nato, Sorensen finished third ahead of Berthon, Julian Leal, Stoffel Vandoorne, Canamasas, Alexander Rossi, Negrao and Pierre Gasly.

The afternoon session kicked off in scorching heat and with Vandoorne first out on track. Arthur Pic set the early pace before Lynn went quickest. At the one hour mark, Jordan King claimed the top spot going four tenths faster than fellow countryman Lynn. With one hour left on the clock, Nato dipped under 1m42s, but Sorensen improved further and went top before Nato found some extra pace to reclaim P1. Thirty minutes before the chequered flag, King was back on top with a laptime of 1:41.494 – two tenths better than the Arden man. In the dying minutes, the proceedings were halted after Evans stopped at Turn 3. The session was not restarted and King ended up on top ahead of Evans, Sergey Sirotkin (who moved up to third on his last attempt), Nato, Vandoorne, Sorensen, Leal, Berthon, Gasly and Artem Markelov.

Tomorrow’s morning session will start at 09.00, local time.

Morning results

Pos	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Mitch Evans	RUSSIAN TIME	1:42.479	10
2.	Norman Nato	Arden International	1:42.653	22
3.	Marco Sorensen	Carlin	1:42.689	14
4.	Nathanaël Berthon	Lazarus	1:42.712	16
5.	Julian Leal	Carlin	1:42.728	4
6.	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:42.779	35
7.	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1:42.800	14
8.	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1:42.801	10
9.	Andre Negrao	Arden International	1:42.953	26
10.	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1:43.015	10
11.	Daniel De Jong	MP Motorsport	1:43.016	7
12.	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1:43.042	22
13.	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1:43.101	16
14.	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:43.226	3
15.	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1:43.347	18
16.	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1:43.357	14
17.	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	1:43.391	16
18.	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1:43.455	14
19.	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	1:43.766	14
20.	Robert Visoiu	Rapax	1:43.826	14
21.	Marlon Stockinger	Status Grand Prix	1:43.876	19
22.	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1:44.022	10
23	Zoel Amberg	Lazarus	1:44.333	28
24.	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:44.392	26
25.	Rene Binder	Trident	1:44.416	10

Afternoon results

Pos	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1:41.494	20
2.	Mitch Evans	RUSSIAN TIME	1:41.608	14
3.	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1:41.636	12
4.	Norman Nato	Arden International	1:41.755	16
5.	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:41.851	22
6.	Marco Sorensen	Carlin	1:41.861	16
7.	Julian Leal	Carlin	1:41.985	13
8.	Nathanaël Berthon	Lazarus	1:42.004	13
9.	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1:42.015	14
10.	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1:42.038	13
11.	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1:42.201	20
12.	Daniel De Jong	MP Motorsport	1:42.301	9
13.	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:42.301	14
14.	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	1:42.365	22
15.	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	1:42.431	9
16.	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1:42.461	11
17.	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1:42.608	18
18.	Robert Visoiu	Rapax	1:42.628	11
19.	André Negrao	Arden International	1:42.700	10
20.	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:43.181	19
21.	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1:43.207	15
22.	Zoel Amberg	Lazarus	1:43.383	17
23.	Marlon Stockinger	Status Grand Prix	1:43.398	13
24.	Rene Binder	Trident	1:43.902	6
25.	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1:44.630	8