Sergey Sirotkin tops Day 1 session at Barcelona

Sergey Sirotkin
Sergey Sirotkin

Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin made a good start to his 2016 season by setting the best laptime in today’s pre-season test. The ART ace lapped the Spanish track in a 1:29.141 during the morning session ahead of Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn.

The 2016 GP2 Series season officially kicked off this morning with the opening of the first pre-season test session at Circuit de Catalunya. The paddock was greeted by grey skies and cold temperatures for the afternoon session. When the pitlane turned green, it was Philo Paz Armand who fed onto the track first but he was closely followed by the rest of the pack. Twenty minutes into the session all cars had completed at least one installation lap.

The first three hours of the morning session were studious. Carlin’s William Buller set the early pace with a lap time of 1:30.752 but his laptime was bettered by Sean Gelael who went quickest in a 1:30.464. There was a first red flag period halfway through the session after Nabil Jeffri hit the tyre barrier and stopped in the gravel bed at Turn five. The proceedings were briefly halted ten minutes later after MP Motorsports’ Oliver Rowland stopped on track at Turn two.

Jordan King was the first man to dip under 1m30s. However, Mitch Evans found some extra pace to sit pretty at the top of the timesheets. With thirty minutes left on the clock, Sergey Sirotkin went top in a 1:29.072 ahead of PREMA’s Pierre Gasly and DAMS’ Alex Lynn.

At the checkered flag, the top three remained unchallenged. Norman Nato, Evans, King, Arthur Pic, Antonio Giovinazzi, Gelael, and Nobuharu Matsushita completed the top ten.

Raffaele Marciello fastest in the afternoon
Raffaele Marciello fastest in the afternoon

In the afternoon, it was Gustav Malja who got a first taste of the wet conditions but Luca Ghiotto topped the timesheets in the opening hour and was the first man to break the 1m49s barrier. Then Gasly went quickest in a 1:48.683 – 0.7s ahead of the Italian Trident driver. Midway through the session, there was a third red flag period courtesy of Malja who stopped in the gravel bed at Turn five. Once the session resumed, Gasly found some extra pace to lap the circuit in a 1:48.260. Evans also improved and clocked in a laptime of 1:47.649 to take the top honors.

In the final hour, Gasly retook P1 in a 1:45.559 and was 1.725s ahead of Matsushita. Thirty minutes before the end of the session, as the track slowly dried, slick tires eventually made an appearance on some cars, namely Raffaele Marciello who took full advantage of them and went quickest in a 1:41.863 to top the afternoon session.

At the checkered flag, Marciello headed Nicholas Latifi by 1.6s with Ghiotto in P3. Lynn, Malja, King, Sirotkin, Evans, Gasly and Rowland completed the top ten.

Day Two of testing will open tomorrow at 09.00 local time.

Morning results

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Sergey Sirotkin

ART Grand Prix

1:29.072

17

2.

Pierre Gasly

PREMA Racing

1:29.141

20

3.

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:29.171

10

4.

Norman Nato

Racing Engineering

1:29.542

18

5.

Mitch Evans

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:29.655

19

6.

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:29.686

21

7.

Arthur Pic

Rapax

1:29.737

19

8.

Antonio Giovinazzi

PREMA Racing

1:29.771

19

9.

Sean Gelael

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:29.784

28

10.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:29.934

16

11.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:29.967

20

12.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:30.004

12

13.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:30.072

10

14.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:30.139

20

15.

Raffaele Marciello

RUSSIAN TIME

1:30.289

19

16.

Marvin Kirchhofer

Carlin

1:30.317

26

17.

Gustav Malja

Rapax

1:30.396

23

18.

William Buller

Carlin

1:30.752

20

19.

Oliver Rowland

MP Motorsport

1:31.274

11

20.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:31.583

17

21.

Jimmy Eriksson

Arden International

1:32.195

14

22.

Nabil Jeffri

Arden International

1:32.773

15

Afternoon results

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Raffaele Marciello

RUSSIAN TIME

1:41.863

21

2.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:43.500

19

3.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:43.758

20

4.

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:43.909

33

5.

Gustav Malja

Rapax

1:44.176

26

6.

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:44.888

24

7.

Sergey Sirotkin

ART Grand Prix

1:44.905

14

8.

Mitch Evans

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:45.274

21

9.

Pierre Gasly

PREMA Racing

1:45.559

16

10.

Oliver Rowland

MP Motorsport

1:45.889

20

11.

Marvin Kirchhofer

Carlin

1:45.986

21

12.

Jimmy Eriksson

Arden International

1:46.043

25

13.

William Buller

Carlin

1:46.257

24

14.

Antonio Giovinazzi

PREMA Racing

1:46.455

17

15.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:46.675

27

16.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:47.345

31

17.

Nabil Jeffri

Arden International

1:47.692

23

18.

Norman Nato

Racing Engineering

1:48.174

21

19.

Sean Gelael

Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing

1:48.513

24

20.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:48.686

26

21.

Arthur Pic

Rapax

1:49.035

25

22.

Daniel de Jong

MP Motorsport

1:50.630

21

23.

Sergio Canamasas

Status Grand Prix

1