Yes, morning mostly saw the competitors testing out the new DRS system that the cars have for this year. When GP2's technical director; Didier Perrin was asked about the DRS system he said; "our target was to produce one that would be similar to the one used in Formula One but that would be easy to operate and affordable for GP2." It should make racing closer and make it easier to overtake, which would really spice up the Sprint Races.
As for the cars, they ventured out carefully. There were only 3 lap times after 30 mins as many drivers did one lap runs. Rossi had been the first one out and unsurprisingly got use to the track the quickest. He was the fastest in the morning session ahead of the Dams drivers of Gasly and Lynn.Meanwhile; the session was stopped for 30 mins while software adjustments were made. Stockinger would also later find himself stopping the session after his car stopped at turn 5. Stockinger will have a hard season if he can't get use to new car. It's going to be a competitive field, so he will need to connect with the team and his vehicle before we start the season.
Into the Afternoon Session after the teams had focused on aero testing, many drivers tried to beat their personal best with Rossi's time tumbling fast. Vandoorne had set the early pace with Gasly the first man to dip into the 1:49s. Some time later Evans and Haryanto both improved up the leaderboard, but time was cut short after a red flag with Leal stopping at turn 17.
Some more quick times came in at the end with first King then Gasly topping the timing sheets. Despite some improvements Gasly was not beaten and now looks like the man to beat, going into day 2. The only issue came with Jefferies who failed to complete a lap.
Full Results:
Pos.
|
Driver
|
Nat.
|
Team
|
Morning
|
Afternoon
|
1
|
Pierre Gasly
|
FRA
|
Dams
|
1:51.298 [2]
|
1:48.897
|
2
|
Artur Pic
|
FRA
|
Campos Racing
|
1:52.020
|
1:48.955
|
3
|
Raffaele
Marciello
|
ITA
|
Trident
|
1:51.605 [4]
|
1:49.252
|
4
|
Rene Binder
|
AUT
|
Trident
|
1:51.779
|
1:49.294
|
5
|
Jordan King
|
GBR
|
Racing
Engineering
|
1:51.822
|
1:49.303
|
6
|
Sergey
Sirotkin
|
RUS
|
Rapax
|
1:52.103
|
1:49.379
|
7
|
Mitch Evans
|
NZL
|
Russian Time
|
1:51.670
|
1:49.393
|
8
|
Rio Haryanto
|
IDN
|
Campos
|
1:52.273
|
1:49.456
|
9
|
Alexander
Rossi
|
USA
|
Racing
Engineering
|
1:50.845 [1]
|
1:49.474
|
10
|
Alex Lynn
|
GBR
|
Dams
|
1:51.544 [3]
|
1:49.480
|
11
|
Stoffel
Vandoorne
|
BEL
|
ART Grand Prix
|
2:08.142
|
1:49.579
|
12
|
Norman Nato
|
FRA
|
Arden
International
|
2:15.901
|
1:49.682
|
13
|
Richie
Stanaway
|
NZL
|
Status Grand
Prix
|
1:52.261
|
1:49.771
|
14
|
Daniel De Jong
|
NED
|
MP Motorsport
|
1:51.665 [5]
|
1:49.865
|
15
|
Andre Negrao
|
BRA
|
Arden
International
|
1:54.645
|
1:49.916
|
16
|
Marco Sorensen
|
DEN
|
Carlin
|
1:53.366
|
1:49.960
|
17
|
Nathanael
Berthon
|
FRA
|
Lazarus
|
1:52.001
|
1:50.163
|
18
|
Julian Leal
|
COL
|
Carlin
|
1:52.074
|
1:50.307
|
19
|
Nobuharu
Matsushita
|
JAP
|
ART Grand Prix
|
2:25.398
|
1:50.674
|
20
|
Vittorio
Ghirelli
|
ITA
|
MP Motorsport
|
1:54.451
|
1:50.680
|
21
|
Artem Markelov
|
RUS
|
Russian Time
|
1:53.059
|
1:50.929
|
22
|
Marlon
Stockinger
|
PHI
|
Status Grand
Prix
|
1:53.701
|
1:51.004
|
23
|
Robert Visoiu
|
ROM
|
Rapax
|
1:53.338
|
1:51.069
|
24
|
Sergio
Canamasas
|
ESP
|
Hilmer
Motorsport
|
1:53.340
|
1:51.178
|
25
|
Zoel Amburg
|
SUI
|
Lazarus
|
1:53.565
|
1:52.651
|
26
|
Axcil
Jefferies
|
ZIM
|
Hilmer
Motorsport
|
--
|
--
|
The Positions
are the results of the Afternoon Session
[1] –
Position in Morning Session (only top 5 shown)
|
|||||
Gasly appears to the man to beat, but I feel we haven't seen all of Vandoorne/ Rossi's pace.
-|RacingRecaps|-
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