GP2’s best rookie of 2015, Sergey Sirotkin, began the new season in style at the Circuit de Catalunya with the best laptime of the opening preseason test day, a 1:29.072. Behind the Russian, the former team mates Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn took the second and third place on the time sheets, with Gasly being 7 hundredths slower, and Lynn one tenth of a second off the pace of Sirotkin.
The new GP2 season of 2016 began under a Catalonian sky full of clouds and in cold conditions. Rookie Philo Paz Armand opened the pre-season test, and although the conditions were not inviting, all drivers followed the Trident man and completed their installation laps.
William Buller of Carlin set the first benchmark laptime of 1:30.752 in the early stage of the session, and soon afterwards Campos Racing’s Sean Gelael improved and went four tenths faster. Two red flags interrupted the session: Arden’s Nabil Jeffri was the first casualty of the day, hitting the tyre wall and ending in the gravel trap of turn five, and ten minutes later MP Motorsport man Oliver Rowland came to a halt on the track at turn two.
Afterwards, the times dropped further. Racing Engineering’s Jordan King was the first man who lapped the faster than one minute and thirty seconds, but his time was soon beaten by Russian Time’s Mitch Evans. In the closing stage of the session it was Sirotkin’s moment: The ART driver claimed the top spot, and Gasly and Lynn followed suit and made themselves comfortable in second and third place.
At the checkered flag, the top three was unchanged. Behind the leading trio, Norman Nato had slotted into fourth place ahead of Evans and King. Arthur Pic, Antonio Giovinazzi, Gelael, and Nobuharu Matsushita completed the top ten.
The afternoon session took place on a wet race track. Rapax’s Gustav Malja was the first out on track, and Trident’s Luca Ghiotto set the early pace as the first man to dip under the barrier of one minute and 49 seconds. Then it was Gasly’s turn on top after lapping the Catalonian track 0.7 seconds faster than the Italian. A red flag midway through the session halted the proceedings: Malja had become the second victim of the gravel trap of turn five.
When the session continued, Gasly found some extra pace and improved his own time further before the top spot was snatched from the Frenchman by Evans. However, Gasly was able to retake the top honours in the last hour of the session, 1.7 seconds ahead as the track began to dry. Eventually the conditions had improved enough to use slick tyres, and Raffaele Marciello made full use of that opportunity to drive the fastest laptime of the afternoon session, a 1:41.559.
At the checkered flag, Marciello remained on the top of the time sheets, 1.6 seconds faster than second-placed Nicholas Latifi. Ghiotto took third place, followed by Lynn, King, Sirotkin, Evans, Gasly, and Rowland.
