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Pierre Gasly tops Day 3

The final day of pre-season testing opened under clear blue skies and in hot temperatures at the Bahrain International Circuit. As the pitlane went green, the drivers fed onto the track eager to put their Soft Pirelli tyres to good use as early as possible. Stoffel Vandoorne led the way, but it was Marco Sorensen who set the early pace until his laptime was bettered first by Mitch Evans, then Nathanaël Berthon and Jordan King.

Raffaele Marciello was the first man to dip under 1m40s, the Italian driver going 0.069s faster than Pierre Gasly. During a busy session with lots of traffic, Vandoorne capitalised on a clear track to clock in a laptime of 1:39.646, but on the one hour mark, Gasly went top by 0.014s. Evans moved up to third ahead of Alexander Rossi.

The temperatures kept on rising and for the remainder of the session, teams and drivers focused more on race simulations and set ups. At the chequered flag, Marciello, Alex Lynn, King, Sergey Sirotkin, Sorensen and Arthur Pic completed the top ten.

The action resumed after a one hour break. Norman Nato set the pace during the first hour and with a laptime of 1:41.97 sat pretty at the top of the timesheet whilst teams and drivers focused again on race simulations and pit stop practice. Thirty minutes before the end of the session, a red flag halted the proceedings as Nato stopped on track after his car started to catch on fire. At the restart, Nigel Melker improved and claimed the top spot with a laptime of 1:41.566. Sirotkin also improved and moved up to P2, 0.067s slower than the Hilmer man. In the closing stages, Rio Haryanto and Gasly moved up to P3 and P4 respectively, ahead of Nato, Lynn, Robert Visoiu, Nick Yelloly, Rene Binder and André Negrao.

This concluded the pre-season testing. The 2015 GP2 Series season will kick off in two weeks time on this same track and alongside Formula One.

Morning results

Driver Team Laptime Laps
1. Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:39.632 21
2. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:39.646 21
3. Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1:39.679 15
4. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:39.715 14
5. Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:39.720 21
6. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:39.884 21
7. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:40.002 16
8. Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:40.007 29
9. Marco Sorensen Carlin 1:40.017 18
10. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:40.254 21
11. Julian Leal Carlin 1:40.288 18
12. André Negrao Arden International 1:40.323 17
13. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:40.356 19
14. Norman Nato Arden International 1:40.416 19
15. Nathanaël Berthon Lazarus 1:40.453 26
16. Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:40.663 15
17. Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1:40.685 25
18. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:40.860 19
19. Rene Binder Trident 1:40.873 21
20. Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1:41.101 27
21. Robert Visoiu Rapax 1:41.261 26
22. Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:41.354 20
23 Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1:41.456 18
24. Nigel Melker Hilmer Motorsport 1:42.628 18
25. Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1:44.799 30
26. Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:45.477 32

Afternoon results

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Nigel Melker

Hilmer Motorsport

1:41.566

18

2.

Sergey Sirotkin

Rapax

1:41.633

12

3.

Rio Haryanto

Campos Racing

1:41.707

39

4.

Pierre Gasly

DAMS

1:41.797

28

5.

Norman Nato

Arden International

1:41.970

12

6.

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:41.988

26

7.

Robert Visoiu

Rapax

1:42.000

12

8.

Nick Yelloly

Hilmer Motorsport

1:42.367

17

9.

Rene Binder

Trident

1:42.510

21

10.

André Negrao

Arden International

1:42.964

20

11.

Arthur Pic

Campos Racing

1:42.736

36

12.

Zoel Amberg

Lazarus

1:43.483

29

13.

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:44.004

35

14.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:44.061

35

15.

Nathanaël Berthon

Lazarus

1:44.115

28

16.

Stoffel Vandoorne

ART Grand Prix

1:44.252

33

17.

Marlon Stockinger

Status Grand Prix

1:44.506

34

18.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

1:44.789

20

19.

Marco Sorensen

Carlin

1:44.878

50

20.

Richie Stanaway

Status Grand Prix

1:45.087

32

21.

Raffaele Marciello

Trident

1:45.274

11

22.

Julian Leal

Carlin

1:45.376

42

23.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:45.441

38

24.

Alexander Rossi

Racing Engineering

1:45.565

58

25.

Sergio Canamasas

MP Motorsport

1:45.842

22

26.

Mitch Evans

RUSSIAN TIME

1:45.913

26