Copyright GP2 Media Services
Jordan King topped the time sheet ahead of Racing Engineering team mate Alexander Rossi and DAMS rookie Alex Lynn in the first free practice session of the season.
The session took place around midday in scorching hot 35°C air temperature, so the drivers kept an eye on both time sheet and tyres as the highly abrasive nature of the track was increased even further by the high temperatures.
Alexander Rossi set the first flying lap of 1:42.451 and was fastest on track during the early stages of the session ahead of ART GP’s Stoffel Vandoorne. 15 minutes into the session, DAMS driver Alex Lynn went on a promising flying lap, but his effort brought the rookie only up to second place.
Shortly afterwards it was Jordan King’s time to shine: He lapped the circuit exactly one hundredth of a second faster than his team mate and took the top spot.
In the remaining 30 minutes the order at the top did not change: With only five sets of tyres available for the weekend, hardly anyone tried to challenge; the focus was on saving tyres for qualifying and race.
With ten minutes left to run Rossi attempted another flying lap but he was not able to improve. Yellow flags interrupted the action in the dying minutes of the session as Stoffel Vandoorne stopped on track with an oil pressure problem.
As the track was clear again, Marco Sorensen went on a fast lap as well, but he was not able to challenge the top drivers and as the checquered flag fell, Jordan King was still on top with Alexander Rossi behind him, followed by Alex Lynn, Stoffel Vandoorne, and the Campos Racing duo Arthur Pic and Rio Haryanto. Pierre Gasly, Mitch Evans, Raffaele Marciello, and Nobuharu Matsushita round out the Top 10.
The qualifying session will take place later tonight at 20:00 local time (GMT+3).
