GP2 Series

Rossi and Caterham Lead Day One of Bahrain Test

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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
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