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Red Bull's Gasly leads final GP2 pre-season test in Bahrain

Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly has finished GP2 pre-season testing on top, setting the fastest time on the final day of running at Bahrain International Circuit

Gasly, who will test a Formula 1 car for the first time next month with Toro Rosso, led the way in the morning session, which featured qualifying simulations before teams switched their focus to race preparations for circuit's season opener in a fortnight.

Pirelli's soft tyres featured from the outset, with Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello the first man to dip below the 1m40s barrier during the three-day test.

Last year's Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up, Gasly moved to the top of the timesheets an hour into running with a 1m39.632s and the DAMS driver's benchmark wasn't bettered as temperatures rose.

In a tight top end, McLaren junior Stoffel Vandoorne was his closest challenger with a time just 0.014 seconds slower, while Mitch Evans, Alexander Rossi and Marciello were all within a tenth of Gasly.

Reigning GP3 champion and Gasly's team-mate, Alex Lynn was sixth, ahead of day one pacesetter Jordan King.

"For me the three days of testing have been very encouraging," King said.

"To come here and go quickest on the first day was very positive, firstly because I have never been here before and secondly because GP2 doesn't have a lot of time before qualifying, so to be able to come to a new circuit and go quickly straight away was quite encouraging.

"Over the next two days we changed a lot of things so we have a lot of data to analyse, so we can now sit down and see what worked and what didn't and learn which direction to go in."

After finishing 24th in the morning, Nigel Melker topped the afternoon running with a time of 1m41.566, ahead of Sergey Sirotkin, Rio Haryanto, Gasly and Norman Nato, whose Arden International caused a late red flag when it caught on fire.

MORNING TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1m39.632s - 21
2 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1m39.646s 0.014s 21
3 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1m39.679s 0.047s 15
4 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1m39.715s 0.083s 14
5 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1m39.720s 0.088s 21
6 Alex Lynn DAMS 1m39.884s 0.252s 21
7 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1m40.002s 0.370s 16
8 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1m40.007s 0.375s 29
9 Marco Sorensen Carlin 1m40.017s 0.385s 18
10 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1m40.254s 0.622s 21
11 Julian Leal Carlin 1m40.288s 0.656s 18
12 Andre Negrao Arden International 1m40.323s 0.691s 17
13 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1m40.356s 0.724s 19
14 Norman Nato Arden International 1m40.416s 0.784s 19
15 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1m40.453s 0.821s 26
16 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1m40.663s 1.031s 15
17 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1m40.685s 1.053s 25
18 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1m40.860s 1.228s 19
19 Rene Binder Trident 1m40.873s 1.241s 21
20 Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1m41.101s 1.469s 27
21 Robert Visoiu Rapax 1m41.261s 1.629s 26
22 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m41.354s 1.722s 20
23 Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1m41.456s 1.824s 18
24 Nigel Melker Hilmer Motorsport 1m42.628s 2.996s 18
25 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1m44.799s 5.167s 30
26 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1m45.477s 5.845s 32

AFTERNOON TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Nigel Melker Hilmer Motorsport 1m41.566s - 18
2 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1m41.633s 0.067s 12
3 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1m41.707s 0.141s 39
4 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1m41.737s 0.171s 28
5 Norman Nato Arden International 1m41.970s 0.404s 12
6 Alex Lynn DAMS 1m41.988s 0.422s 26
7 Robert Visoiu Rapax 1m42.000s 0.434s 12
8 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1m42.367s 0.801s 17
9 Rene Binder Trident 1m42.510s 0.944s 21
10 Andre Negrao Arden International 1m42.694s 1.128s 20
11 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1m42.736s 1.170s 36
12 Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1m43.483s 1.917s 29
13 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1m44.004s 2.438s 35
14 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1m44.061s 2.495s 35
15 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1m44.115s 2.549s 28
16 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1m44.252s 2.686s 33
17 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1m44.506s 2.940s 34
18 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m44.789s 3.223s 20
19 Marco Sorensen Carlin 1m44.878s 3.312s 50
20 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1m45.087s 3.521s 32
21 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1m45.274s 3.708s 11
22 Julian Leal Carlin 1m45.376s 3.810s 42
23 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1m45.441s 3.875s 38
24 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1m45.565s 3.999s 58
25 Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1m45.842s 4.276s 22
26 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1m45.913s 4.347s 26


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