GP2 Bahrain: Nobuharu Matsushita quickest in Day 2 testing

The morning session on the second day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit was delayed by one hour: a sandstorm hit the track the night before leaving sands in its wake. The circuit service and the teams were hard at work to clean the pitlane and the rest of the layout. At 10.00 local time, the session went live and Jordan King was the first man to feed onto the still dusty track, followed by Arthur Pic. During the opening hour, drivers mainly focused on pitstop practice and start procedures whilst Alexander Rossi set the pace.

Alex Lynn went quickest with one hour left on the clock, but his laptime was bettered first by King, and then by Pic. As the track improved, Rio Haryanto went top, but in the dying minutes, Sergey Sirotkin dipped under 1m42s. His laptime of 1:41.797 was enough for him to top the shortened session at the checkered flag ahead of King, Lynn, Haryanto, Pic, Stoffel Vandoorne, Nobuharu Matsushita, Julian Leal, Rene Binder and Rossi.

It was Richie Stanaway who set the early afternoon pace ahead of Nick Yelloly and Marlon Stockinger, but it was Marco Sorensen who was the first man to break the 1m42s barrier. The teams’ programs consisted of race simulations for the major part of the trouble-free session. Midway, Rossi went top with a laptime 0.004s better than Stanaway’s, but the Status man reclaimed P1 later on after having lapped the track in a 1:41.086.

The final fifteen minutes of the session saw most of the drivers switch to Soft Pirelli tires and push hard. Raffaele Marciello clocked in a laptime of 1:40.446 whilst others also improved, but not as much as the Italian who looked pretty at the top of the standings. Matsushita however found some extra pace and with five minutes left on the clock set a laptime of 1:40.191. In the closing stages, Pic also managed to improve and moved up to P2 ahead of Marciello. At the checkered flag, and behind the top three, Sirotkin, Sorensen, Vandoorne, Daniel De Jong, Sergio Canamasas, Haryanto and Artem Markelov rounded up the top ten.

Tomorrow’s session will run from 09.00 until 12.00, and then from 13.00 until 16.00 local time.

Morning results

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:41.797 10
2. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:42.289 10
3. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:42.427 9
4. Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:42.437 15
5. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:42.483 21
6. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:42.557 12
7. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:42.588 14
8. Julian Leal Carlin 1:42.736 5
9. Rene Binder Trident 1:43.104 16
10. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:43.390 15
11. Robert Visoiu Rapax 1:43.580 12
12. Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:43.749 4
13. Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1:43.868 8
14. Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1:43.877 9
15. Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:43.963 4
16. Marco Sorensen Carlin 1:44.511 4
17. Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1:44.954 6
18. Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1:45.070 8
19. Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 0 0

Afternoon results

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:40.191 31
2. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:40.350 27
3. Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:40.446 16
4. Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:40.561 24
5. Marco Sorensen Carlin 1:40.658 25
6. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:40.666 26
7. Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:40.927 20
8. Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1:40.958 33
9. Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:40.981 29
10. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:41.034 24
11. Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1:41.086 21
12. Rene Binder Trident 1:41.097 25
13. Robert Visoiu Rapax 1:41.128 27
14. Norman Nato Arden International 1:41.183 32
15. Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1:41.227 22
16. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:41.341 21
17. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:41.352 22
18. Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1:41.372 16
19. Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1:41.440 35
20. Julian Leal Carlin 1:41.497 21
21. Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:41.606 31
22. Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:41.669 33
23. Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1:42.467 5
24. André Negrao Arden International 1:42.509 23
25. Nigel Melker Hilmer Motorsport 1:43.631 13
26. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:44.181 34