2015 GP2 Pre-Season Test (Bahrain) Day 1

King Fastest as Evans Impresses

It was unsurprisingly good weather in Bahrain as the teams prepared to go out. Many of the teams were straight out of the pits as they wanted to get running on track, including drivers like Visoiu who hasn't raced on the track before.

The teams decided to run cars on only instillation laps at first to check there wasn't any problems with the cars, so no competitive times had been set for the first hour. Negrao was the first to set a competitive lap time with a 1:42.953. But only Canamasas, Matsushita and Amburg would add to those competitive times by the half way stage.

The track was reported to be dusty by the drivers, as a result many times were not set and many decided to stay in the pits. Despite this, Sorensen and Berthon would also improve. The drivers finally decided to set some laps in the final half an hour as Nato, then Evans topped the timing sheet, meanwhile other improved on their times further.

As the afternoon session got underway Pic and Vandoorne were the drivers first up to speed being the first to break into the 1:43s that afternoon, however; this was soon beaten by Lynn and then King after only an hour of the session. 

King stayed fastest for some time, but with half the session gone Nato set fastest laps, he was beaten breifly by Sorensen but quickly regined his spot. As the session drew to a close, many drivers went back out to set faster times, with King, again taking top spot. Evans interupted the end of the session after stopping at turn 3, but still finished 2nd.

Results after Day 1:

Pos.	Driver	Nat.	Team	Morning	Afternoon
1	Jordan King	GBR	Racing Engineering	1:43.101	1:41.494
2	Mitch Evans	NZL	Russian Time	1:42.479 [1]	1:41.608
3	Sergey Sirotkin	RUS	Rapax	1:43.357	1:41.636
4	Norman Nato	FRA	Arden International	1:42.653 [2]	1:41.755
5	Stoffel Vandoorne	BEL	ART Grand Prix	1:42.779	1:41.851
6	Marco Sorensen	DEN	Carlin	1:42.689 [3]	1:41.861
7	Julian Leal	COL	Carlin	1:42.728 [5]	1:41.985
8	Nathanael Berthon	FRA	Lazarus	1:42.712 [4]	1:42.004
9	Pierre Gasly	FRA	DAMS	1:43.015	1:42.015
10	Artem Markelov	RUS	Russian Time	1:43.455	1:42.038
11	Alexander Rossi	USA	Racing Engineering	1:42.801	1:42.201
12	Daniel De Jong	NED	MP Motorsport	1:43.016	1:42.301
13	Arthur Pic	FRA	Campos Racing	1:43.226	1:42.301
14	Richie Stanaway	NZL	Status Grand Prix	1:43.391	1:42.365
15	Raffaele Marciello	ITA	Trident	1:43.766	1:42.431
16	Alex Lynn	GBR	DAMS	1:44.022	1:42.461
17	Nick Yelloly	GBR	Hilmer Motorsport	1:43.042	1:42.608
18	Robert Visoiu	ROM	Rapax	1:43.826	1:42.628
19	Andre Negrao	BRA	Arden International	1:42.953	1:42.700
20	Nobuharu Matsushita	JAP	ART Grand Prix	1:44.392	1:43.181
21	Rio Haryanto	IDN	Campos Racing	1:43.347	1:43.207
22	Zoel Amburg	SUI	Lazarus	1:44.333	1:43.383
23	Marlon Stockinger	PHI	Status Grand Prix	1:43.876	1:43.398
24	Rene Binder	AUT	Trident	1:44.416	1:43.902
25	Sergio Canamasas	ESP	MP Motorsport	1:42.800	1:44.630
26	Nigel Melker	NED	Hilmer Motorsport	Missed	Day 1
The Positions are the results of the Afternoon Session [1] – Position in Morning Session (only top 5 shown)

Conclusions

Evans has proven himself today, with only a small mistake at the end. However; after being the man to beat in the afternoon, King will be determined to prove himself amongst his peers. While there were good times from Nato/ Vandoorne the Carlin drivers.

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