Bahrain GP2: Rossi leads champ Vandoorne in tight practice session
Alexander Rossi led the way in free practice for the penultimate GP2 round of the season at Bahrain, alongside the World Endurance Championship
Rossi, who has just completed his five-race stint with the Manor Formula 1 team, set his time of 1m41.180s inside the first 15 minutes, and times largely stayed the same for the balance of the session.
He finished 0.033 seconds clear of champion-elect Stoffel Vandoorne, the McLaren protege recording a time of 1m41.213s.
Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly set the pace before Rossi and ended up third, with Vandoorne's ART team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita fourth, within 0.073s of Rossi.
In a trouble-free start to the weekend - the round replacing the cancelled German Grand Prix slot - Sergey Sirotkin was fifth, ahead of Raffaele Marciello, Alex Lynn and Jordan King.
Returning from injuries sustained at Spa in August, Daniel De Jong was 21st fastest for Trident.
In at Rapax in place of Robert Visoiu, Gustav Malja was 22nd, one spot ahead of Formula Renault 3.5 champion Oliver Rowland making his third GP2 appearance and first with Status.
PRACTICE RESULTS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1m41.180s | - | 18 |
2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1m41.213s | 0.033s | 18 |
3 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1m41.230s | 0.050s | 19 |
4 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m41.253s | 0.073s | 18 |
5 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1m41.345s | 0.165s | 17 |
6 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1m41.427s | 0.247s | 18 |
7 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1m41.507s | 0.327s | 19 |
8 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m41.529s | 0.349s | 15 |
9 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1m41.535s | 0.355s | 15 |
10 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1m41.610s | 0.430s | 16 |
11 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1m41.688s | 0.508s | 17 |
12 | Rene Binder | MP Motorsport | 1m41.729s | 0.549s | 18 |
13 | Sergio Canamasas | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1m41.747s | 0.567s | 16 |
14 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m41.849s | 0.669s | 17 |
15 | Mitch Evans | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m41.943s | 0.763s | 17 |
16 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1m42.006s | 0.826s | 18 |
17 | Nathanael Berthon | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1m42.150s | 0.970s | 17 |
18 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1m42.173s | 0.993s | 14 |
19 | Dean Stoneman | Carlin | 1m42.453s | 1.273s | 17 |
20 | Nicholas Latifi | MP Motorsport | 1m42.523s | 1.343s | 17 |
21 | Daniel de Jong | Trident | 1m42.864s | 1.684s | 17 |
22 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1m43.302s | 2.122s | 17 |
23 | Oliver Rowland | Status Grand Prix | 1m43.342s | 2.162s | 13 |
24 | Sean Gelael | Carlin | 1m44.400s | 3.220s | 19 |
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