Honda's Matsushita tops final day of 2015 GP2 testing
Honda protege Nobuharu Matsushita led the final day of GP2 post-season testing in Abu Dhabi for 2015 championship-winning team ART Grand Prix
The Japanese driver had stepped aside after heading both sessions on Wednesday, but he returned to beat day two pacesetter Nicholas Latifi to Friday's best time with a lap of 1m48.313s in the evening.
Week-long DAMS driver Latifi held onto the best time of the test though with his 1m47.860s from Thursday.
Sergey Sirotkin was third quickest on Friday to bring some cheer on a difficult GP2 debut for Prema, which encountered several technical issues after taking over the former Lazarus cars.
After a stuck throttle caused Felix Rosenqvist to crash on Thursday, Pierre Gasly barely ran at all on Friday due to a broken gearbox.
Formula Renault 3.5 champion Oliver Rowland was fourth quickest after moving from Prema to DAMS to take over from fellow Briton Alex Lynn.
He narrowly missed out on the best time in the slower morning session, beaten by Mitch Evans by just 0.004 seconds.
Evans was later excluded from the evening session after his Campos-run car was found to be underweight.
GP3 runner-up Luca Ghiotto rounded out the test with the best day of any GP2 newcomer this week.
Joining Rapax for day three, he was third in the morning and then fifth in the evening, closely followed on both occasions by Andre Negrao in the sister car.
MORNING TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | 1m48.922s | - | 24 |
| 2 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 1m48.926s | 0.004s | 22 |
| 3 | Luca Ghiotto | Rapax | 1m49.057s | 0.135s | 30 |
| 4 | Andre Negrao | Rapax | 1m49.154s | 0.232s | 27 |
| 5 | Sergey Sirotkin | Prema Racing | 1m49.201s | 0.279s | 15 |
| 6 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.243s | 0.321s | 34 |
| 7 | Tio Ellinas | Trident | 1m49.246s | 0.324s | 35 |
| 8 | Nick Yelloly | MP Motorsport | 1m49.331s | 0.409s | 24 |
| 9 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Carlin | 1m49.361s | 0.439s | 23 |
| 10 | Richie Stanaway | Carlin | 1m49.418s | 0.496s | 12 |
| 11 | Marlon Stockinger | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.911s | 0.989s | 34 |
| 12 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1m50.000s | 1.078s | 28 |
| 13 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1m50.085s | 1.163s | 25 |
| 14 | Gustav Malja | Status Grand Prix | 1m50.152s | 1.230s | 20 |
| 15 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m50.237s | 1.315s | 24 |
| 16 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m50.396s | 1.474s | 32 |
| 17 | Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 1m50.968s | 2.046s | 24 |
| 18 | Andrea Caldarelli | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m51.011s | 2.089s | 24 |
| 19 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 1m51.026s | 2.104s | 6 |
| 20 | Philo Paz Armand | Status Grand Prix | 1m51.173s | 2.251s | 32 |
| 21 | Emil Bernstorff | Arden International | 1m51.517s | 2.595s | 30 |
| 22 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1m53.588s | 4.666s | 21 |
| 23 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 1m55.778s | 6.856s | 4 |
| 24 | Salvatore De Plano | MP Motorsport | 1m57.792s | 8.870s | 27 |
EVENING TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m48.313s | - | 35 |
| 2 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1m48.432s | 0.119s | 37 |
| 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | Prema Racing | 1m48.465s | 0.152s | 24 |
| 4 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 1m48.522s | 0.209s | 24 |
| 5 | Luca Ghiotto | Rapax | 1m48.668s | 0.355s | 34 |
| 6 | Andre Negrao | Rapax | 1m48.710s | 0.397s | 25 |
| 7 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m48.737s | 0.424s | 25 |
| 8 | Marlon Stockinger | ART Grand Prix | 1m48.752s | 0.439s | 33 |
| 9 | Richie Stanaway | Carlin | 1m49.046s | 0.733s | 32 |
| 10 | Nick Yelloly | MP Motorsport | 1m49.068s | 0.755s | 17 |
| 11 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1m49.109s | 0.796s | 32 |
| 12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Carlin | 1m49.192s | 0.879s | 36 |
| 13 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m49.249s | 0.936s | 29 |
| 14 | Gustav Malja | Status Grand Prix | 1m49.357s | 1.044s | 30 |
| 15 | Tio Ellinas | Trident | 1m49.433s | 1.120s | 34 |
| 16 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1m49.596s | 1.283s | 32 |
| 17 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 1m49.698s | 1.385s | 35 |
| 18 | Emil Bernstorff | Arden International | 1m49.706s | 1.393s | 35 |
| 19 | Philo Paz Armand | Status Grand Prix | 1m50.395s | 2.082s | 30 |
| 20 | Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 1m50.436s | 2.123s | 40 |
| 21 | Andrea Caldarelli | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m50.471s | 2.158s | 37 |
| 22 | Salvatore De Plano | MP Motorsport | 1m55.248s | 6.935s | 25 |
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