Norman Nato ends Day 3 on top in Jerez

Norman Nato
Norman Nato

Frenchman Norman Nato concluded this week’s second pre-season testing at the top of the timesheets: he lapped the Spanish track in a 1:24.518 ahead of Arthur Pic and Nobuharu Matsushita. Rapax driver Pic was quickest in the afternoon session.

Blue skies greeted the paddock once again for the third and final day of pre-season testing in Spain. When the pitlane turned green, Racing Engineering’s Jordan King was the first man to feed onto the track, but it was DAMS’ Alex Lynn who set the early pace with a laptime of 1:25.220. Twenty minutes into the session, Oliver Rowland caused a first red flag after he stopped on track between Turns 8 and 9.

After the restart, Nato found some extra pace to dip under 1m25s and topped the timesheet in a 1:24.518. One hour into the session, a second red flag period was caused by two cars: Arden International’s Nabil Jeffri spun and stopped in the gravel bed at Turn 2 whilst Raffaele Marciello stopped at Turn 8. The proceedings were halted again shortly after the restart due to Philo Paz Armand who also spun and stopped at Turn 2.

Arthur Pic
Arthur Pic

The remainder of the session was busy with most of the drivers completing longer runs and practice starts. At the checkered flag, Nato remained top ahead of Pic and Nobuharu Matsushita. Pierre Gasly, Lynn, Sergey Sirotkin, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi, King and Luca Ghiotto completed the top ten. The first seventeen drivers lapped within one second.

In the afternoon, Swede Gustav Malja set the early pace in a 1:25.820 but Pic bettered his teammate’s laptime in a 1:25.583 to claim P1. At mid-session Raffaele Marciello caused a fourth red flag period after he stopped on track between Turns 5 and 6. As the clock ticked down, the teams and drivers were focused again on long runs, practice starts and pit stops. The proceedings were briefly halted in the closing stages after Matsushita stopped on track at Turn 1.

When the session ended, Pic headed Malja and Artem Markelov. Marciello, Jimmy Ericksson, Nabil Jeffri, Mitch Evans, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Oliver Rowland and Daniel De Jong completed the top 10.

This concludes the 2016 pre-season test session at Jerez de la Frontera. The GP2 paddock will gather next at Barcelona for Round 1 on May 13-14-15.

Morning results

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Norman Nato

Racing Engineering

1:24.518

31

2.

Arthur Pic

Rapax

1:24.592

23

3.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:24.617

28

4.

Pierre Gasly

PREMA Racing

1:24.652

42

5.

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:24.677

24

6.

Sergey Sirotkin

ART Grand Prix

1:24.682

32

7.

Antonio Giovinazzi

PREMA Racing

1:24.688

37

8.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:24.689

19

9.

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:24.747

24

10.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:24.937

28

11.

Gustav Malja

Rapax

1:24.948

30

12.

Mitch Evans

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:25.072

21

13.

Oliver Rowland

MP Motorsport

1:25.120

22

14.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:25.134

16

15.

Raffaele Marciello

RUSSIAN TIME

1:25.318

14

16.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:25.339

34

17.

Marvin Kirchhöfer

Carlin

1:25.404

28

18.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:25.698

22

19.

Jimmy Eriksson

Arden International

1:25.819

29

20.

Sean Gelael

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:26.053

30

21.

Nabil Jeffri

Arden International

1:26.074

27

Afternoon results

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Arthur Pic

Rapax

1:25.583

42

2.

Gustav Malja

Rapax

1:25.820

38

3.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:26.140

39

4.

Raffaele Marciello

RUSSIAN TIME

1:26.435

8

5.

Jimmy Eriksson

Arden International

1:26.629

48

6.

Nabil Jeffri

Arden International

1:27.235

38

7.

Mitch Evans

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:27.410

44

8.

Marvin Kirchhöfer

Carlin

1:28.620

44

9.

Oliver Rowland

MP Motorsport

1:28.761

37

10.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:28.857

33

11.

Sean Gelael

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:29.988

52

12.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:30.115

34

13.

Sergey Sirotkin

ART Grand Prix

1:30.227

55

14.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:30.459

46

15.

Pierre Gasly

PREMA Racing

1:30.570

32

16.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:30.580

50

17.

Antonio Giovinazzi

PREMA Racing

1:30.626

48

18.

Norman Nato

Racing Engineering

1:30.716

51

19.

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:30.840

33

20.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:30.854

42

21.

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:31.096

49