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Jon Lancaster ends pre-season testing on top

Briton quickest on final day at Bahrain International Circuit

Press Release

The final day of pre-season test session opened today at Bahrain International Circuit once again in overcast conditions. Jon Lancaster seemed eager to put his new set of soft Pirelli tyres to good use as he fed onto the track before the rest of the field, but it was rookie Stoffel Vandoorne – also on soft compounds – who set the early pace until the Briton from MP Motorsport was able to dip under 1m41s and claimed the top spot.

Also on a set of new softs, Daniel Abt posted a laptime of 1:39.931 and moved to the top of the standings before stopping at Turn 6 and causing a brief red flag period. At the restart, Vandoorne hit the front with a laptime one hundredth quicker than the German, but Lancaster found some extra pace to reclaim the head of the standings. Felipe Nasr also improved enough to move up to P2 but remained two tenths behind the Briton.

The remainder of the session was studious with drivers fine-tuning their race set-ups. Alexander Rossi was able to edge Nasr out of P2 during the final hour of the session. Behind the trio, Vandoorne, Abt, Jolyon Palmer, Julian Leal, rookie Raffaele Marciello, Mitch Evans and Rio Haryanto completed the top ten.

The afternoon session started after a one hour break in similar weather and temperature conditions. Palmer led the way early with a laptime of 1:41.522, his teammate Stéphane Richelmi in tow. The Briton sat at the top of the standings for the most part of the three-hour session as teams and drivers focused once again on race simulations and pitstop practices. Abt was able to lap the track in a 1:41.061 in the late stages and went top. Evans also found some extra pace to move to P2, two tenths slower than the German. In the dying minutes, many drivers improved on their personal best laptime, but at the chequered flag, Abt remained top ahead of Evans, Johnny Cecotto, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Palmer, Simon Trummer, newcomer Facu Regalia, Richelmi, rookies Axcil Jefferies (who returned to Trident today in replacement of Vittorio Ghirelli) and Artem Markelov.

This concluded the 2014 GP2 Series pre-season testing. Teams and drivers will return to Sakhir in two weeks for the opening round of the tenth season of the category which will commence on April 4th at Bahrain International Circuit.

Morning results

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Jon Lancaster

MP Motorsport

1:39.647

15

2.

Alexander Rossi

EQ8 Caterham Racing

1:39.693

16

3.

Felipe Nasr

Carlin

1:39.829

22

4.

Stoffel Vandoorne

ART Grand Prix

1:39.920

26

5.

Daniel Abt

Hilmer Motorsport

1:39.931

26

6.

Jolyon Palmer

DAMS

1:40.003

30

7.

Julian Leal

Carlin

1:40.031

15

8.

Raffaele Marciello

Racing Engineering

1:40.157

25

9.

Mitch Evans

RT RUSSIAN TIME

1:40.233

17

10.

Rio Haryanto

EQ8 Caterham Racing

1:40.377

21

11.

Stéphane Richelmi

DAMS

1:40.397

33

12.

Facu Regalia

Hilmer Motorsport

1:40.446

28

13.

Simon Trummer

Rapax

1:40.474

35

14.

Nathanaël Berthon

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:40.511

17

15.

Stefano Coletti

Racing Engineering

1:40.529

18

16.

Rene Binder

Arden International

1:40.550

18

17.

Kimiya Sato

Campos Racing

1:40.659

15

18.

Daniiel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:40.668

17

19.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs

Rapax

1:40.743

27

20.

André Negrao

Arden International

1:40.956

25

21.

Takuya Izawa

ART Grand Prix

1:41.019

18

22.

Arthur Pic

Campos Racing

1:41.054

16

23.

Artem Markelov

RT RUSSIAN TIME

1:41.131

22

24.

Johnny Cecotto

Trident

1:41.722

20

25.

Conor Daly

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:41.766

25

26.

Axcil Jefferies

Trident

1:43.522

20

Afternoon results

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Daniel Abt

Hilmer Motorsport

1:41.061

20

2.

Mitch Evans

RT RUSSIAN TIME

1:41.272

36

3.

Johnny Cecotto

Trident

1:41.290

30

4.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs

Rapax

1:41.518

22

5.

Jolyon Palmer

DAMS

1:41.522

29

6.

Simon Trummer

Rapax

1:41.584

31

7.

Facu Regalia

Hilmer Motorsport

1:42.191

20

8.

Stéphane Richelmi

DAMS

1:42.662

37

9.

Axcil Jefferies

Trident

1:42.670

24

10.

Artem Markelov

RT RUSSIAN TIME

1:42.944

44

11.

Felipe Nasr

Carlin

1:43.498

39

12.

Rene Binder

Arden International

1:43.598

38

13.

Conor Daly

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:43.639

40

14.

Jon Lancaster

MP Motorsport

1:43.650

40

15.

Arthur Pic

Campos Racing

1:43.651

39

16.

Stoffel Vandoorne

ART Grand Prix

1:44.549

48

17.

Takuya Izawa

ART Grand Prix

1:44.642

52

18.

Julian Leal

Carlin

1:45.300

51

19.

Raffaele Marciello

Racing Engineering

1:45.395

39

20.

Kimiya Sato

Campos Racing

1:45.395

42

21.

Stefano Coletti

Racing Engineering

1:45.516

32

22.

Alexander Rossi

EQ8 Caterham Racing

1:45.565

51

23.

Nathanaël Berthon

Venezuela GP Lazarus

1:45.596

30

24.

Daniiel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:46.018

34

25.

Rio Haryanto

EQ8 Caterham Racing

1:46.477

42

26.

André Negrao

Arden International

1:46.492

33