McLaren's Matsushita fastest on first day of testing in new F2 era
McLaren test and development driver Nobuharu Matsushita led an ART Grand Prix 1-2 on the opening day of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Barcelona
Matsushita, who has been a Honda protege for several seasons and last February was handed a role with McLaren, lapped the Spanish circuit in a fastest time of 1m29.061s in Monday's afternoon session as F2 kicked off its new era following the series' recent rebranding.
The Japanese driver recorded his effort - 0.011 seconds quicker than the fastest time recorded on the opening day of the Barcelona test last year by former ART team-mate Sergey Sirotkin - an hour into the afternoon session, which remained unbeated for the remainder of the day.
New team-mate Alexander Albon ended up as Matsushita's closest challenger, the GP3 Series runner-up recording lapping within a tenth of Matsushita in the final hour to make up an ART 1-2.
Albon's time was matched exactly by Norman Nato late on, with Racing Engineering's Gustav Malja a close fourth and morning pacesetter Johnny Cecotto making up the top five.
Prema, which took Pierre Gasly to the GP2 title last year and will field an all-rookie line-up with two Ferrari juniors in 2017, had a low-key opening day with Charles Leclerc its fastest driver in 12th in the combined timesheets.
Ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi, who is testing with Campos this week with a view racing in the series in 2017, was slowest of all.
MORNING TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Johnny Cecotto Jr. | Rapax | 1m29.239s | 11 |
2 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 0.116s | 13 |
3 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 0.313s | 18 |
4 | Nyck de Vries | Rapax | 0.386s | 11 |
5 | Norman Nato | Pertamina Arden | 0.435s | 10 |
6 | Luca Ghiotto | RUSSIAN TIME | 0.488s | 18 |
7 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 0.504s | 13 |
8 | Charles Leclerc | Prema Racing | 0.689s | 21 |
9 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 0.779s | 18 |
10 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Arden | 0.923s | 10 |
11 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 0.949s | 12 |
12 | Gustav Malja | Racing Engineering | 1.126s | 16 |
13 | Antonio Fuoco | Prema Racing | 1.194s | 24 |
14 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 1.433s | 17 |
15 | Sergio Canamasas | Trident | 1.662s | 17 |
16 | Ralph Boschung | Campos Racing | 1.753s | 16 |
17 | Sergio Sette Camara | MP Motorsport | 1.833s | 10 |
18 | Nabil Jeffri | Trident | 1.991s | 13 |
19 | Roberto Merhi | Campos Racing | 2.231s | 14 |
20 | Louis Deletraz | Racing Engineering | 2.352s | 17 |
AFTERNOON TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m29.061s | 43 |
2 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 0.096s | 42 |
3 | Norman Nato | Pertamina Arden | 0.096s | 28 |
4 | Gustav Malja | Racing Engineering | 0.169s | 29 |
5 | Johnny Cecotto Jr. | Rapax | 0.295s | 27 |
6 | Louis Deletraz | Racing Engineering | 0.638s | 31 |
7 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 0.664s | 24 |
8 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 0.689s | 27 |
9 | Charles Leclerc | Prema Racing | 0.695s | 30 |
10 | Luca Ghiotto | RUSSIAN TIME | 0.915s | 28 |
11 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1.052s | 26 |
12 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Arden | 1.099s | 32 |
13 | Sergio Sette Camara | MP Motorsport | 1.217s | 26 |
14 | Sergio Canamasas | Trident | 1.236s | 20 |
15 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 1.269s | 22 |
16 | Ralph Boschung | Campos Racing | 1.409s | 27 |
17 | Nyck de Vries | Rapax | 1.414s | 34 |
18 | Antonio Fuoco | Prema Racing | 1.610s | 22 |
19 | Roberto Merhi | Campos Racing | 2.636s | 17 |
20 | Nabil Jeffri | Trident | 3.052s | 22 |
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