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Nato concludes test week in first position

Published on 01 Apr 2016 08:14
0
By: Rob Veenstra

Frenchman Norman Nato concluded this week's second pre-season testing at the top of the timesheets: he lapped the Spanish track in a 1:24.518 ahead of Arthur Pic and Nobuharu Matsushita. Rapax driver Pic was quickest in the afternoon session.

Blue skies greeted the paddock once again for the third and final day of pre-season testing in Spain. When the pitlane turned green, Racing Engineering’s Jordan King was the first man to feed onto the track, but it was DAMS’ Alex Lynn who set the early pace with a laptime of 1:25.220. Twenty minutes into the session, Oliver Rowland caused a first red flag after he stopped on track between Turns 8 and 9.

After the restart, Nato found some extra pace to dip under 1m25s and topped the timesheet in a 1:24.518. One hour into the session, a second red flag period was caused by two cars: Arden International’s Nabil Jeffri spun and stopped in the gravel bed at Turn 2 whilst Raffaele Marciello stopped at Turn 8. The proceedings were halted again shortly after the restart due to Philo Paz Armand who also spun and stopped at Turn 2.

The remainder of the session was busy with most of the drivers completing longer runs and practice starts. At the chequered flag, Nato remained top ahead of Pic and Nobuharu Matsushita. Pierre Gasly, Lynn, Sergey Sirotkin, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi, King and Luca Ghiotto completed the top ten. The first seventeen drivers lapped within one second.

In the afternoon, Swede Gustav Malja set the early pace in a 1:25.820 but Pic bettered his teammate’s laptime in a 1:25.583 to claim P1. At mid-session Raffaele Marciello caused a fourth red flag period after he stopped on track between Turns 5 and 6. As the clock ticked down, the teams and drivers were focused again on long runs, practice starts and pit stops. The proceedings were briefly halted in the closing stages after Matsushita stopped on track at Turn 1.

When the session ended, Pic headed Malja and Artem Markelov. Marciello, Jimmy Ericksson, Nabil Jeffri, Mitch Evans, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Oliver Rowland and Daniël De Jong completed the top 10.

Circuito de Jerez - 31 March 2016

Driver

Team

Time

Difference

#
1

Norman Nato

Racing Engineering

1:24.518

82
2

Arthur Pic

Team Rapax

1:24.592

+0.074

65
3

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:24.617

+0.099

78
4

Pierre Gasly

Prema Racing

1:24.652

+0.134

74
5

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:24.677

+0.159

57
6

Sergey Sirotkin

ART Grand Prix

1:24.682

+0.164

87
7

Antonio Giovinazzi

Prema Racing

1:24.688

+0.170

85
8

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:24.689

+0.171

53
9

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:24.747

+0.229

73
10

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:24.937

+0.419

70
11

Gustav Malja

Team Rapax

1:24.948

+0.430

68
12

Mitch Evans

Campos Racing

1:25.072

+0.554

65
13

Oliver Rowland

MP Motorsport

1:25.120

+0.602

59
14

Daniël de Jong

MP Motorsport

1:25.134

+0.616

49
15

Raffaele Marciello

Russian Time

1:25.318

+0.800

22
16

Artem Markelov

Russian Time

1:25.339

+0.821

73
17

Marvin Kirchhöfer

Carlin

1:25.404

+0.886

72
18

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:25.698

+1.180

68
19

Jimmy Eriksson

Arden International

1:25.819

+1.301

77
20

Sean Gelael

Campos Racing

1:26.053

+1.535

82
21

Nabil Jeffri

Arden International

1:26.074

+1.556

65

GP2 News Raffaele Marciello Pierre Gasly Alex Lynn Jordan King Nobuharu Matsushita Sergey Sirotkin Norman Nato Nicholas Latifi Mitch Evans Antonio Giovinazzi Daniël de Jong Oliver Rowland Gustav Malja Arthur Pic Philo Paz Armand Luca Ghiotto Nabil Jeffri Artem Markelov DAMS Arden International Racing Engineering Rapax