Baku GP2: Norman Nato fastest in first session on Azerbaijan track
Championship leader Norman Nato was fastest as the GP2 field christened the Baku street city with their practice session on Friday morning
The Azerbaijan track was unsurprisingly dirty at first, with times improving by 11 seconds through the 45 minutes as the Formula 1 feeder series cars cleared the dust from the circuit.
Nato ultimately set the pace for Racing Engineering with a 1m55.394s, three and a half tenths ahead of rookie Antonio Giovinazzi.
Sergey Sirotkin, Pierre Gasly and Oliver Rowland completed the top five.
The session was repeatedly interrupted by yellows and virtual safety car periods.
Despite the focus on Baku's narrow sections, it was the downhill right-handers at Turns 15 and 16 that caused the majority of the trouble.
Several drivers went down the tight escape road at Turn 15, beginning with Jordan King - who had to dodge a van parked in there as he did so.
The vehicle was moved during a subsequent VSC, which was just as well given the number of other drivers who explored the runoff there later in the session.
Raffaele Marciello and Philo Paz Armand's session both ended when they were unable to get back on track after sliding off at Turn 15, while Nobuharu Matsushita provided some variety by parking at Turn 3.
PRACTICE TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1m55.394s | - | 16 |
| 2 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 1m55.719s | 0.325s | 15 |
| 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.093s | 0.699s | 16 |
| 4 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 1m56.464s | 1.070s | 17 |
| 5 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1m56.871s | 1.477s | 17 |
| 6 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 1m57.059s | 1.665s | 16 |
| 7 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m57.091s | 1.697s | 15 |
| 8 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 1m57.438s | 2.044s | 16 |
| 9 | Raffaele Marciello | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m57.464s | 2.070s | 8 |
| 10 | Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 1m57.538s | 2.144s | 14 |
| 11 | Marvin Kirchhofer | Carlin | 1m57.585s | 2.191s | 14 |
| 12 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m57.587s | 2.193s | 15 |
| 13 | Mitch Evans | Pertamina Campos Racing | 1m57.799s | 2.405s | 17 |
| 14 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1m58.397s | 3.003s | 17 |
| 15 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m58.432s | 3.038s | 13 |
| 16 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1m58.808s | 3.414s | 16 |
| 17 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1m59.723s | 4.329s | 16 |
| 18 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 1m59.757s | 4.363s | 11 |
| 19 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 2m00.493s | 5.099s | 17 |
| 20 | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 2m00.561s | 5.167s | 17 |
| 21 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Campos Racing | 2m00.769s | 5.375s | 14 |
| 22 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 2m01.794s | 6.400s | 15 |
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