Vandoorne dominates GP2 practice in Barcelona
Stoffel Vandoorne fired a warning shot to his GP2 rivals after easily topping the practice session at Barcelona, setting a best time over half a second clear of the field.
Stoffel Vandoorne, ART Grand Prix
GP2 Series Media Service
The Belgian’s best time, a 1m30.171s, came a third of the way through the 45-minute session, with the drivers opting to focus on longer runs thereafter.
Mitch Evans briefly held the top spot early on in the session with a 1m30.689s, but he was soon deposed by ART driver Vandoorne, who surged to the top of the timesheets with a 1m30.415s before lowering his own benchmark by a further two tenths.
The Russian Time pilot remained Vandoorne’s closest challenger, albeit 0.518s off the pace, just ahead of Racing Engineering’s Alexander Rossi, whose best effort fell 0.596s short of the championship leader, who is targeting his sixth consecutive GP2 pole position.
Fourth quickest was Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly (DAMS), 0.639s off the pace and just eight thousandths quicker than compatriot Nathanael Berthon (Lazarus), while Richie Stanway (Status) slotted into sixth.
Bahrain race two winner Rio Haryanto (Campos) was the only other driver to lap within a second of Vandoorne, Alex Lynn (DAMS), Sauber tester Raffaele Marciello (Trident) and Evans’ teammate Artem Markelov completing the top 10 runners.
Pos
|
Driver |
Team
|
Time
|
1
|
Stoffel Vandoorne |
ART Grand Prix
|
1:30.171
|
2
|
Mitch Evans |
Russian Time
|
1:30.689
|
3
|
Alexander Rossi |
Racing Engineering
|
1:30.767
|
4
|
Pierre Gasly |
DAMS
|
1:30.810
|
5 | Nathanael Berthon |
Lazarus
|
1:30.818
|
6
|
Richie Stanaway |
Status Grand Prix
|
1:30.943
|
7
|
Rio Haryanto |
Campos Racing
|
1:31.010
|
8
|
Alex Lynn |
DAMS
|
1:31.173
|
9
|
Raffaele Marciello |
Trident
|
1:31.191
|
10
|
Artem Markelov |
Russian Time
|
1:31.313
|
11
|
Daniel De Jong |
MP Motorsport
|
1:31.414
|
12
|
Marco Sorensen |
Carlin
|
1:31.446
|
13
|
Arthur Pic |
Campos Racing
|
1:31.465
|
14
|
Johnny Cecotto |
Hilmer Motorsport
|
1:31.492
|
15
|
Jordan King |
Racing Engineering
|
1:31.524
|
16
|
Andre Negrao |
Arden International
|
1:31.540
|
17
|
Julian Leal |
Carlin
|
1:31.581
|
18
|
Sergio Canamasas |
MP Motorsport
|
1:31.596
|
19
|
Robert Visoiu |
Rapax
|
1:31.888
|
20
|
Rene Binder |
Trident
|
1:32.001
|
21
|
Zoel Amberg |
Lazarus
|
1:32.046
|
22
|
Nobuharu Matsushita |
ART Grand Prix
|
1:32.108
|
23
|
Nick Yelloly |
Hilmer Motorsport
|
1:32.182
|
24
|
Marlon Stockinger |
Status Grand Prix
|
1:32.216
|
25
|
Norman Nato |
Arden International
|
1:32.243
|
26
|
Sergey Sirotkin |
Rapax
|
1:51.479
|
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