Raffaele Marciello set the best laptime in today’s post-season test session at the Yas Marina Circuit. The Italian lapped the track in a 1:49.937 at the wheel of a Trident car during the afternoon session ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita (ART Grand Prix) and Oliver Rowland (DAMS).

The first day of post-season testing opened in hot temperatures just before noon with the twenty-two drivers on Pirelli Medium tyres. Newly crowned GP3 champion Charles Leclerc was the first driver who fed onto the track in his PREMA Racing car, soon followed by the rest of the pack. After a few minutes into the session, all cars had completed at least one installation lap.

The proceedings were briefly red flagged as Luca Ghiotto – who tested today with Rapax – stopped on track at Turn 21. When the session turned green again, Leclerc was the first man to dip under 2m and set a laptime of 1:51.603. But GP3 vice-champion Alexander Albon and former teammate of Leclerc went quickest in a 1:51.347. There was then a second red flag period as Salvatore De Plano spun and stopped at Turn 20. At the restart, Matsushita topped the timesheets and set a laptime of 1:49.483 ahead of Marciello and Artem Markelov.

With one hour left on the clock, the proceedings were once again briefly interrupted as De Plano spun, stopped and continued at Turn 17. From then on, the rest of the session was trouble free. At the chequered flag, the top three remained unchanged. Jordan King, Johnny Cecotto, Rowland, Ghiotto, Sean Gelael, Nicholas Latifi and Gustav Malja rounded up the top ten.

The sun was setting as the action resumed for the afternoon session. Rowland was first on track but it was King who set the early pace in a 1:51.292. However, Marciello found some extra pace to clock a laptime of 1:49.840. He then improved on his own time by 0.135s.

Thirty minutes into the session, Matsushita moved up to P1 and went even quicker than his morning’s best with a laptime of 1:49.307. Rookie Leclerc closed the gap to the Japanese driver but not enough to claim the top spot and went P2. One hour into the session, Marciello sat pretty at the top of the timesheets with a laptime of 1:48.937. Latifi and Johnny Cecotto also improved to move up to second and third respectively.

Halfway through the session, there was a first red flag period courtesy of Gelael who stopped on track at Turn 19. The proceedings were halted once again shortly after the re-start of the session when Antonio Fuoco and Felix Serralles made small contact. After the pitlane re-opened, Matsushita went second fastest with Rowland in third. In the dying minutes, Markelov stopped at Turn 5 prompting one final red flag period which ended the session effectively.

At the chequered flag, Marciello headed Matsushita by 0.17s with Rowland in P3. Latifi, Cecotto, Leclerc, King, Markelov, Ghiotto and Gelael completed the top ten.

Day 2 of testing will open tomorrow at 11.45, local time (GMT+4).

Day 1 – Morning results

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:49.483

23

2.

Raffaele Marciello

Trident

1:49.767

7

3.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:49.892

19

4.

Jordan King

RUSSIAN TIME

1:50.272

18

5.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

1:50.411

12

6.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

1:50.550

11

7.

Luca Ghiotto

Rapax

1:50.593

16

8.

Sean Gelael

Arden International

1:50.594

14

9.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:50.635

9

10.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

1:50.763

18

11.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

1:50.922

21

12.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

1:50.940

31

13.

Alex Palou

Pertamina Campos Racing

1:50.942

20

14.

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

1:50.958

30

15.

Antonio Giovinazzi

Arden International

1:51.033

18

16.

Egor Orudzhev

Pertamina Campos Racing

1:51.050

25

17.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:51.269

23

18.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:51.277

27

19.

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

1:51.509

23

20.

Mahaveer Raghunathan

Carlin

1:54.075

26

21.

Felix Serralles

Carlin

1:54.249

8

22.

Salvatore De Plano

MP Motorsport

1:58.844

23


Day 1 – Afternoon results*

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Raffaele Marciello

Trident

1:48.937

23

2.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

1:49.182

20

3.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:49.247

26

4.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

1:49.247

13

5.

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

1:49.265

30

6.

Jordan King

RUSSIAN TIME

1:49.348

19

7.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:49.426

24

8.

Luca Ghiotto

Rapax

1:49.467

20

9.

Sean Gelael

Arden International

1:49.709

28

10.

Antonio Giovinazzi

Arden International

1:49.813

27

11.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

1:49.854

28

12.

Alex Palou

Pertamina Campos Racing

1:49.870

33

13.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:49.945

31

14.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

1:49.947

23

15.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

1:50.046

27

16.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:50.187

31

17.

Egor Orudzhev

Pertamina Campos Racing

1:50.582

30

18.

Felix Serralles

Carlin

1:51.656

26

19.

Mahaveer Raghunathan

Carlin

1:52.425

23

20.

Salvatore Deplano

MP Motorsport

1:55.584

22

*Cars 1 (Matsushita) and 22 (Camara) disqualified – Found underweight

GP2 Series Press Release