GP2 Practice Report Bahrain

The highly anticipated tenth GP2 Series season commenced in Bahrain today.
DAMS' drivers of Jolyon Palmer and Stéphane Richelmi led the entire field out onto the track for the first 45 minute Practice in GP2 Series history. The majority of drivers completed a sole exploratory lap before returning to the pits.

Conor Daly was the first driver to set a reasonably representative lap time having completed the circuit in 1:43.057 but the American was soon deposed by Arthur Pic in the Campos Racing car.

The dusty conditions of the Bahrain International Circuit were proving to be a challenge for a few names. Felipe Nasr and Facu Regalia lost the rear end of their cars and went for an off-track excursion. Julián Leal had a big spin at the same corner as his team mate and Regalia but got the Carlin moving soon after.

At the 15 minutes to go mark, Mitch Evans had moved to the top of the leaderboard with a lap time of 1:42.062 with 19 of his opponents less than one second off his time.
In the closing minutes of the session, Daniël de Jong locked his rear tyres at the first corner and then slowed to a halt bringing out the red flags. The session was not restarted and Mitch Evans topped Practice with his unbeaten time of 1:42.062. The New Zealander's time was slower than Fabio Leimer's Practice topping time of 1:41.369 from 12 months ago.

Qualifying begins at 20:00 local time in Bahrain under the floodlights and the dark night sky.
Position
1 M. Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 1:42.062
2 S. Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:42.124
3 R. Marciello Racing Engineering 1:42.269
4 D. Abt Hilmer Motorsport 1:42.319
5 S. Richelmi DAMS 1:42.373
6 R. Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:42.388
7 A. Negrão Arden International 1:42.507
8 J. Palmer DAMS 1:42.533
9 S. Trummer Rapax 1:42.553
10 C. Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:42.574
11 T. Izawa ART Grand Prix 1:42.606
12 S. Coletti Racing Engineering 1:42.607
13 A. Pic Campos Racing 1:42.629
14 D. De Jong MP Motorsport 1:42.653
15 J. Leal Carlin 1:42.664
16 F. Nasr Carlin 1:42.707
17 A. Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:42.959
18 J. Cecotto Trident. 1:42.984
19 A. Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 1:42.997
20 R. Binder Arden International 1:43.071
21 J. Lancaster MP Motorsport 1:43.076
22 N. Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:43.307
23 F. Regalia Hilmer Motorsport 1:43.547
24 A. Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 1:43.815
25 A. Jefferies Trident 1:43.842
26 K. Sato Campos Racing 1:44.243

Callum Rowe
Editor & Sole Contributor, Callum Rowe’s GP2 Blog