American driver Alexander Rossi topped the timing screens on the first day of the final GP2 pre-season test, with the EQ8 Caterham Racing driver edging out Hilmer Motorsport’s Daniel Abt and Russian Time’s Mitch Evans.
Rossi’s lap of 1:40.604s was only 0.012s ahead of German driver Abt, while New Zealander Evans was only 0.076s behind the American. Twenty-one of the twenty-six drivers were within one second of the fastest time of the day, and everyone was within 1.7 seconds.
Another American, Conor Daly, was fourth fastest overall for Venezuela GP Lazarus, and has made his case for getting the drive for the upcoming season stronger. Daly, along with Jon Lancaster at MP Motorsport and Vittorio Ghirelli at Trident Racing are all unconfirmed for the 2014 season.
The pacesetter of the Abu Dhabi test last week, Jolyon Palmer, finished fifth in the standings, just ahead of Venezuelan Johnny Cecotto Jr of Trident Racing. Ferrari junior driver, Italian Raffaele Marciello, was seventh just ahead of fellow Italian Ghirelli. Marciello and Ghirelli were the 2013 FIA European Formula 3 and Auto GP series champions respectively. Williams F1 reserve driver Felipe Nasr of Carlin and McLaren F1 reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne of ART Grand Prix completed the top ten.
Takuya Izawa and Simon Trummer caused red flags during the day, with the ART Grand Prix driver Izawa stopping on track while Trummer of Rapax hit a kerb at turn ten and ground to a halt.
The test continues tomorrow.
Bahrain Day 1 Pre-Season Test Times
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
1 | Alexander Rossi | USA | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:40.604 |
2 | Daniel Abt | GER | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:40.616 |
3 | Mitch Evans | NZL | Russian Time | 1:40.680 |
4 | Conor Daly | USA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:40.734 |
5 | Jolyon Palmer | GBR | DAMS | 1:40.769 |
6 | Johnny Cecotto Jr | VEN | Trident Racing | 1:40.829 |
7 | Raffaele Marciello | ITA | Racing Engineering | 1:40.932 |
8 | Vittorio Ghirelli | ITA | Trident Racing | 1:40.976 |
9 | Felipe Nasr | BRZ | Carlin | 1:41.022 |
10 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | ART Grand Prix | 1:41.041 |
11 | Jon Lancaster | GBR | MP Motorsport | 1:41.045 |
12 | Nathanael Berthon | FRA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:41.065 |
13 | Facu Regalia | ARG | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:41.131 |
14 | Arthur Pic | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:41.192 |
15 | Julian Leal | COL | Carlin | 1:41.195 |
16 | Rio Haryanto | INO | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:41.275 |
17 | Stephane Richelmi | MON | DAMS | 1:41.359 |
18 | Stefano Coletti | MON | Racing Engineering | 1:41.394 |
19 | Rene Binder | AUT | Arden International | 1:41.426 |
20 | Andre Negrao | BRZ | Arden International | 1:41.438 |
21 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | GBR | Rapax | 1:41.548 |
22 | Simon Trummer | SWI | Rapax | 1:41.709 |
23 | Artem Markelov | RUS | Russian Time | 1:41.726 |
24 | Kimiya Sato | JAP | Campos Racing | 1:41.739 |
25 | Takuya Izawa | JAP | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.013 |
26 | Daniel de Jong | NED | MP Motorsport | 1:42.282 |