Pierre Gasly quickest on Day 2

PREMA Racing’s ace tops session at Barcelona

By Franck Drui

10 March 2016 - 17:38
Pierre Gasly quickest on Day 2

Cold temperatures and sunny conditions graced the paddock this morning on Day 2 of pre-season testing at Circuit de Catalunya. When the pitlane turned green, Pierre Gasly and Status Grand Prix’s Meindert van Buuren were the first to feed onto the track, quickly followed by the rest of the drivers.

The Frenchman set the early pace in a 1:30.823 on Hard Pirelli tyres, but Jordan King bettered the Gasly’s laptime by four tenths to go top. Forty minutes into the session, there was a short red flag period caused by Antonio Giovinazzi who stopped on track at the end of the main straight.

At the restart, Raffaele Marciello was the first man to dip under 1m30s. However, Nobuharu Matsushita found some extra pace to clock in a laptime of 1:28.690 which was enough to take P1. With two hours left on the clock, the Japanese’s teammate Sergey Sirotkin took the top spot on Prime tyres in a 1:27.971. He remained unchallenged until the end of a studious session.

At the chequered flag, the Russian finished ahead of Gasly who edged King out of P2 in the final hour. Norman Nato, Marciello, Mitch Evans, Rene Binder, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Artem Markelov and Luca Ghiotto completed the top ten.

In the afternoon, it was Oliver Rowland who first went out on track and set the early pace in 1:29.922. Soon after, Giovinazzi lapped quickest in a 1:29.187 – 0.8s ahead of the Briton. One hour into the session, the proceedings were halted twice in a row; firstly with Artem Markelov, followed by Sean Gelael who both stopped in the gravel bed at Turn five. Once the session resumed, King put his head down to sit pretty at the top of the timesheet with a laptime of 1:28.779.

In the final hour, the soft Pirelli tyres made an appearance on some cars. Gasly took full advantage of them and went P1 in a blazing laptime of 1:27.703 – +1.076s ahead of King. At the chequered flag, the pair of Gasly and King were followed by Arthur Pic, Giovinazzi, Danïel de Jong, Rowland, Binder, Jimmy Eriksson, Gustav Malja and Ghiotto to complete the top ten.

The final day of this pre-season test will start tomorrow at 09.00 local time.

Morning results

PosDriverTeamTimeLaps
1. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:27.971 34
2. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:28.084 39
3. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:28.093 36
4. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:28.106 39
5. Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.194 38
6. Mitch Evans Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:28.403 47
7. Rene Binder Carlin 1:28.591 36
8. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:28.862 33
9. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.871 41
10. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:28.873 26
11. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:28.890 17
12. Danïel de Jong MP Motorsport 1:28.902 17
13. Sergio Canamasas Status Grand Prix 1:29.103 22
14. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:29.115 33
15. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:29.204 33
16. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:29.229 21
17. Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:29.353 37
18. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:29.717 34
19. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:30.143 39
20. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:30.223 36
21. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:32.023 14
22. Meindert van Buuren Status Grand Prix 1:32.077 18
23. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:33.952 41
24. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:34.714 40

Afternoon results

PosDriverTeamTimeLaps
1. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:27.703 25
2. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:28.779 31
3. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:28.827 38
4. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:29.023 34
5. Danïel de Jong MP Motorsport 1:29.130 22
6. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:29.198 21
7. Rene Binder Carlin 1:29.616 27
8. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:29.632 20
9. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:29.794 37
10. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:29.879 25
11. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:29.991 26
12. Sergio Canamasas Status Grand Prix 1:30.063 31
13. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:30.574 42
14. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:30.732 21
15. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:30.957 22
16. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:31.739 37
17. Meindert van Buuren Status Grand Prix 1:32.700 25
18. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:32.966 43
19. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:33.471 43
20. Mitch Evans Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:33.700 47
21. Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1:33.969 38
22. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:34.478 40
23. Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:34.727 41
24. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:34.948 48

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