Kari tops day two of GP3 Yas Marina test

Niko Kari

Niko Kari continued where he left off yesterday by setting the pace once again on day 2 of the 2017 post-season GP3 Series test at the Yas Marina Circuit, stopping the clock at 1:54.733 this morning and beating his best time from yesterday by 0.2s and lead the way from Leonardo Pulcini and Giuliano Alesi by almost four tenths in the session, while Leonardo Pulcini claimed the honors this afternoon with a time of 1:55.210 by two tenths from Callum Ilott and Nikita Mazepin.

Once again the day opened to gloriously sunny conditions, with all of the drivers heading straight out on track when the lights went green to set up their cars for what was effectively a practice qualifying session. Jehan Daruvala set the first competitive laptime before a string of drivers ensured the times tumbled: Alessio Lorandi, Pedro Piquet, Alesi, Jake Hughes, Callum Ilott, Kari and Pulcini all set good times, with the Finn topping his own best lap just before the red flags were brought out when Juan Manuel Correa stopped on the main straight at the 1 hour mark.

The track was soon green, but it had brought the unofficial qualifying session to a close: for the rest of the session the teams concentrated on long run pace, handing Kari his second top time in a row. The afternoon saw Kari top the times early before Ryan Tveter took over on the top spot at the 15 minute mark before a red flag to remove Jake Hughes’ from the final corner saw everyone else return to the pits.

Tveter improved once again at the 1 hour mark, with his rivals chipping away for another 50 minutes before Ilott and then Pulcini took over in P1: the pair continued a personal battle for the remainder of the session with the Italian coming out on top by almost 0.2s.

The day 3 timetable will be slightly different to the first 2 days: the final morning session of 2017 will run from 8.00 to 10.30, with the afternoon session from 13.20 to 15.50 (GMT+4).

Day 2 Morning results

Day 2 Afternoon results