The final pre-season test for the 2014 GP2 series season concluded on Friday, and saw Indonesian driver Rio Haryanto set the fastest time overall of the three day test, just ahead of his EQ8 Caterham Racing team-mate of Alexander Rossi. The two of them were almost four tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field, with Carlin driver Julian Leal setting the third best time of the week.
“It is a great feeling to be on top of the time sheets and really good for the team as Alexander and I were comfortably fastest and keep pushing each other forward,” said Haryanto on the official Caterham racing website.
“I am really happy with the overall results and the team has done a great job. We are working very well together to get the best out of the car and I am enjoying working alongside Alexander.”
“To have our cars fastest and so close to each other shows that we should definitely be confident in our qualifying pace now,” added Rossi. “It has been a really good six days of testing; everyone has put in a massive amount of effort and the team is working really well together.”
British driver Jon Lancaster was fourth fastest overall for MP Motorsport despite not yet being confirmed in the drive for the season. He was less than a tenth of a second faster than Racing Engineering’s, with the Ferrari junior driver ending up fifth fastest. Williams Raffaele Marciello F1 reserve driver Felipe Nasr completed the top six, while Jolyon Palmer, who was fastest for DAMS in the Abu Dhabi test the week before was seventh.
The top ten was completed by Russian Time driver Mitch Evans, ART Grand Prix driver and McLaren F1 reserve Stoffel Vandoorne, and Hilmer Motorsport’s Daniel Abt.
Eleven drivers set a time within one second of the ultimate pace set by Haryanto, while less than two seconds covered the Indonesian driver from 26th placed Vittorio Ghirelli in his Trident Racing machine. Axcil Jefferies had one day in the same car as Ghirelli but ended up slowest of them all in 27th, almost 1.7 seconds behind Ghirelli in the battle for the second seat in the team alongside Johnny Cecotto Jr.
The other drive yet to be decided is at Venezuela GP Lazarus. Conor Daly is in pole position for the drive after testing for all six days of pre-season testing, and ended up less than a tenth of a second behind the already confirmed Lazarus driver Nathanael Berthon.
Abu Dhabi Overall Pre-Season Test Times
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Rio Haryanto | INO | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:39.129 |
| 2 | Alexander Rossi | USA | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:39.173 |
| 3 | Julian Leal | COL | Carlin | 1:39.538 |
| 4 | Jon Lancaster | GBR | MP Motorsport | 1:39.647 |
| 5 | Raffaele Marciello | ITA | Racing Engineering | 1:39.704 |
| 6 | Felipe Nasr | BRZ | Carlin | 1:39.829 |
| 7 | Jolyon Palmer | GBR | DAMS | 1:39.854 |
| 8 | Mitch Evans | NZL | Russian Time | 1:39.870 |
| 9 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | ART Grand Prix | 1:39.913 |
| 10 | Daniel Abt | GER | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:39.931 |
| 11 | Stephane Richelmi | MON | DAMS | 1:40.045 |
| 12 | Rene Binder | AUT | Arden International | 1:40.126 |
| 13 | Kimiya Sato | JAP | Campos Racing | 1:40.154 |
| 14 | Nathanael Berthon | FRA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:40.190 |
| 15 | Artem Markelov | RUS | Russian Time | 1:40.191 |
| 16 | Conor Daly | USA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:40.233 |
| 17 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | GBR | Rapax | 1:40.250 |
| 18 | Andre Negrao | BRZ | Arden International | 1:40.314 |
| 19 | Facu Regalia | ARG | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:40.446 |
| 20 | Simon Trummer | SWI | Rapax | 1:40.474 |
| 21 | Daniel de Jong | NED | MP Motorsport | 1:40.508 |
| 22 | Stefano Coletti | MON | Racing Engineering | 1:40.529 |
| 23 | Takuya Izawa | JAP | ART Grand Prix | 1:40.678 |
| 24 | Johnny Cecotto | VEN | Trident Racing | 1:40.779 |
| 25 | Arthur Pic | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:40.840 |
| 26 | Vittorio Ghirelli | ITA | Trident Racing | 1:40.976 |
| 27 | Axcil Jefferies | ZIM | Trident Racing | 1:42.670 |
