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Australia

Matsushita sweeps opening day of post-season test

ART Grand Prix driver Nobuharu Matsushita topped both sessions on Day 1 of GP2's post-season test at Yas Marina.

Nobuharu Matsushita, ART Grand Prix

Nobuharu Matsushita, ART Grand Prix

GP2 Series Media Service

Nobuharu Matsushita, ART Grand Prix
Alex Lynn, DAMS
Alex Lynn, DAMS
Pierre Gasly, Prema Racing
Pierre Gasly, Prema Racing
Nicholas Latifi, DAMS
Oliver Rowland, ART Grand Prix
Norman Nato, Arden International
Pascal Wehrlein, Prema Racing
Pascal Wehrlein, Prema Racing

The Honda protege, teammate to champion Stoffel Vandoorne this season, came up less than two tenths short of Pierre Gasly's Abu Dhabi track record for the Dallara GP2/11 machine.

Matsushita was a tenth clear of DAMS driver Alex Lynn in the morning and then ended the day half a second in the lead.

During both sessions, the top 10 was locked out by drivers with previous GP2 experience - with F3 champion Felix Rosenqvist and GP3 runner-up Luca Ghiotto ending the day as top newcomers in 13th and 14th respectively.

In the morning, second-placed Lynn was followed by Norman Nato, representing his regular-season squad Arden, with Oliver Rowland edging his former Formula Renault 2.0 title rival Gasly for fourth place.

Nicholas Latifi, testing with DAMS, led much of the afternoon but eventually finished second to Matsushita, while Prema's Gasly, ART's Rowland and Russian Time's Artem Markelov made up the top 10.

DTM champion Pascal Wehrlein, making his GP2 test debut, completed both sessions in 18th.

Combined timesheets

Pos.DriverTeamAMPM
1  Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:49.180 1:47.903
2 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:49.792 1:48.418
3 Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 1:49.508 1:48.437
4 Oliver Rowland ART Grand Prix 1:49.501 1:48.454
5 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:50.543 1:48.581
6 Nick Yelloly MP Motorsport 1:50.067 1:48.744
7 Norman Nato Arden International 1:49.479 1:48.780
8  Richie Stanaway Carlin 1:49.837 1:48.791
9 Dean Stoneman Carlin 1:50.244 1:48.865
10 Andre Negrao Rapax 1:49.821 1:48.875
11 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:50.078 1:48.943
12 Tio Ellinas Russian Time 1:49.816 1:48.997
13 Felix Rosenqvist Status Grand Prix 1:50.264 1:49.165
14 Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:50.429 1:49.213
15 Sergey Sirotkin Racing Engineering 1:50.200 1:49.223
16 Alex Lynn DAMS 1:49.304 1:52.515
17 Gustav Malja Arden International 1:51.032 1:49.423
18 Alex Fontana Rapax 1:51.309 1:49.747
19 Pascal Wehrlein Prema Racing 1:51.022 1:50.030
20 Jimmy Eriksson Trident 1:50.739 1:50.110
21 Sean Gelael Campos Racing 1:52.340 1:50.491
22 Richard Gonda MP Motorsport 1:51.745 1:50.536
23 Konstantin Tereshchenko Campos Racing 1:51.257 1:51.607
24 Patric Armand Status Grand Prix 1:54.167 1:51.558

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Edition

Australia