Miami GP || May 5 || 16h00 (Local time)

Jon Lancaster ends pre-season testing on top

Briton quickest on final day at Bahrain International Circuit

By Franck Drui

21 March 2014 - 14:28

The final day of pre-season test session opened today at Bahrain International Circuit once again in overcast conditions. Jon Lancaster seemed eager to put his new set of soft Pirelli tyres to good use as he fed onto the track before the rest of the field, but it was rookie Stoffel Vandoorne – also on soft compounds - who set the early pace until the Briton from MP Motorsport was able to dip under 1m41s and claimed the top spot.

Also on a set of new softs, Daniel Abt posted a laptime of 1:39.931 and moved to the top of the standings before stopping at Turn 6 and causing a brief red flag period. At the restart, Vandoorne hit the front with a laptime one hundredth quicker than the German, but Lancaster found some extra pace to reclaim the head of the standings. Felipe Nasr also improved enough to move up to P2 but remained two tenths behind the Briton.

The remainder of the session was studious with drivers fine-tuning their race set-ups. Alexander Rossi was able to edge Nasr out of P2 during the final hour of the session. Behind the trio, Vandoorne, Abt, Jolyon Palmer, Julian Leal, rookie Raffaele Marciello, Mitch Evans and Rio Haryanto completed the top ten.

The afternoon session started after a one hour break in similar weather and temperature conditions. Palmer led the way early with a laptime of 1:41.522, his teammate Stéphane Richelmi in tow. The Briton sat at the top of the standings for the most part of the three-hour session as teams and drivers focused once again on race simulations and pitstop practices. Abt was able to lap the track in a 1:41.061 in the late stages and went top. Evans also found some extra pace to move to P2, two tenths slower than the German. In the dying minutes, many drivers improved on their personal best laptime, but at the chequered flag, Abt remained top ahead of Evans, Johnny Cecotto, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Palmer, Simon Trummer, newcomer Facu Regalia, Richelmi, rookies Axcil Jefferies (who returned to Trident today in replacement of Vittorio Ghirelli) and Artem Markelov.

This concluded the 2014 GP2 Series pre-season testing. Teams and drivers will return to Sakhir in two weeks for the opening round of the tenth season of the category which will commence on April 4th at Bahrain International Circuit.

Morning results

#	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Jon Lancaster	MP Motorsport	1:39.647	15
2.	Alexander Rossi	EQ8 Caterham Racing	1:39.693	16
3.	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	1:39.829	22
4.	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:39.920	26
5.	Daniel Abt	Hilmer Motorsport	1:39.931	26
6.	Jolyon Palmer	DAMS	1:40.003	30
7.	Julian Leal	Carlin	1:40.031	15
8.	Raffaele Marciello	Racing Engineering	1:40.157	25
9.	Mitch Evans	RT RUSSIAN TIME	1:40.233	17
10.	Rio Haryanto	EQ8 Caterham Racing	1:40.377	21
11.	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	1:40.397	33
12.	Facu Regalia	Hilmer Motorsport	1:40.446	28
13.	Simon Trummer	Rapax	1:40.474	35
14.	Nathanaël Berthon	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:40.511	17
15.	Stefano Coletti	Racing Engineering	1:40.529	18
16.	Rene Binder	Arden International	1:40.550	18
17.	Kimiya Sato	Campos Racing	1:40.659	15
18.	Daniiel De Jong	MP Motorsport	1:40.668	17
19.	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	Rapax	1:40.743	27
20.	André Negrao	Arden International	1:40.956	25
21.	Takuya Izawa	ART Grand Prix	1:41.019	18
22.	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:41.054	16
23.	Artem Markelov	RT RUSSIAN TIME	1:41.131	22
24.	Johnny Cecotto	Trident	1:41.722	20
25.	Conor Daly	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:41.766	25
26.	Axcil Jefferies	Trident	1:43.522	20

Afternoon results

#	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Daniel Abt	Hilmer Motorsport	1:41.061	20
2.	Mitch Evans	RT RUSSIAN TIME	1:41.272	36
3.	Johnny Cecotto	Trident	1:41.290	30
4.	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	Rapax	1:41.518	22
5.	Jolyon Palmer	DAMS	1:41.522	29
6.	Simon Trummer	Rapax	1:41.584	31
7.	Facu Regalia	Hilmer Motorsport	1:42.191	20
8.	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	1:42.662	37
9.	Axcil Jefferies	Trident	1:42.670	24
10.	Artem Markelov	RT RUSSIAN TIME	1:42.944	44
11.	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	1:43.498	39
12.	Rene Binder	Arden International	1:43.598	38
13.	Conor Daly	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:43.639	40
14.	Jon Lancaster	MP Motorsport	1:43.650	40
15.	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:43.651	39
16.	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:44.549	48
17.	Takuya Izawa	ART Grand Prix	1:44.642	52
18.	Julian Leal	Carlin	1:45.300	51
19.	Raffaele Marciello	Racing Engineering	1:45.395	39
20.	Kimiya Sato	Campos Racing	1:45.395	42
21.	Stefano Coletti	Racing Engineering	1:45.516	32
22.	Alexander Rossi	EQ8 Caterham Racing	1:45.565	51
23.	Nathanaël Berthon	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:45.596	30
24.	Daniiel De Jong	MP Motorsport	1:46.018	34
25.	Rio Haryanto	EQ8 Caterham Racing	1:46.477	42
26.	André Negrao	Arden International	1:46.492	33