Racing Engineering topped the timing sheets once again when Jordan King found himself quickest overall when he set a 1:24.449 in the morning session on the second day of the GP2 Series test around Circuito de Jerez.
Cold but sunny conditions welcomed the GP2 field, and when the track went green it was the DAMS drivers who were first onto the circuit. It was King who set the early pace on the Hard Pirelli Compound tyre but Sergey Sirotkin bettered the British driver’s time when he went to the top of the timing sheets with a 1:25.710.
Norman Nato, who was quickest the day before, became the first man to dip under the 1m25s mark, but was quickly knocked off the top spot by Antonio Giovinazzi and was pushed further down the pecking order when his teammate King went back to the top of the leader board, improving on Giovinazzi’s time by one tenth.
Raffaele Marciello ran wide at Turn 14 and clipped the barrier causing a brief red flag period an hour into the session, just as a number of drivers swapped to the Medium Pirelli Compound. Shortly after the restart and the track was green again, Sirotkin caused a second red flag period when he made contact with the barrier at Turn 15. Luca Ghiotto in the Trident car caused a third red flag when he suddenly came to a halt between Turns 7 and 8.
At the chequered flag, King was at the top of the timing sheets with Giovinazzi and Nobuharu Matsushita completing the top three. Pierre Gasly, Nato, Sirotkin, Alex Lynn, Arthur Pic, Gustav Malja and Ghiotto all finished within the Top Ten.
The afternoon session got underway in warmer conditions and Malja was the early pace setter when he the Swede set a 1:26.319s.
Marciello caused another brief red flag period when the Italian stopped between Turns 6 and 7, within the opening hour.
At the restart, teams and drivers began to focus on mainly long runs, practice starts and pit stops, with the remainder of the day going on without any trouble and it was King who completed the most laps. Malja concluded the session at the top of the leader board with Lynn and Giovinazzi close behind him.
Artem Markelov, Daniel de Jong, Nicholas Latifi, Mitch Evans, Pic, Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland rounded out the Top Ten.
