GP2: Gasly on top in Free Practice

Pierre Gasly claimed first blood in today's free practice session in sunny Barcelona, leading the timesheets throughout most of the 45 minute session to take the honors in the first live session of the 2016 GP2 Series season ahead of Alex Lynn and Artem Markelov.

Gasly and his 2015 teammate battled early in the session for the top spot, swapping it between them before the Red Bull test driver put a lock on the position with a time of 1:29.519: the Williams tester couldn't get closer than a tenth away and had to make do as the teams concentrated on setting up the cars for qualifying and the races to come.

Markelov joined the pair in the top three 15 minutes in, laying down a marker as he pipped through a very tight top ten. The remainder of the session passed without incident as the drivers concentrated on staying on the track: with qualifying just a few hours away no one wanted to give their mechanics and unwelcome present.

The top ten was split by just one second, with Norman Nato, Sergey Sirotkin, Jordan King, top rookie Antonio Giovinazzi, Nobuharu Matsushita, Oliver Rowland and Marvin Kirchhofer looking to overturn the top three in what promises to be a tight qualifying session this afternoon.

Round 1, Barcelona – Free Practice

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Pierre Gasly

PREMA Racing

1:29.519

18

2.

Alex Lynn

DAMS

1:29.623

20

3.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:29.860

16

4.

Norman Nato

Racing Engineering

1:29.874

18

5.

Sergey Sirotkin

ART Grand Prix

1:29.960

19

6.

Jordan King

Racing Engineering

1:30.001

18

7.

Antonio Giovinazzi

PREMA Racing

1:30.057

20

8.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:30.310

19

9.

Oliver Rowland

MP Motorsport

1:20.345

18

10.

Marvin Kirchhofer

Carlin

1:30.470

16

11.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:30.542

20

12.

Luca Ghiotto

Trident

1:30.556

17

13.

Raffaele Marciello

RUSSIAN TIME

1:30.573

16

14.

Daniel de Jong

MP Motorsport

1:30.662

17

15.

Mitch Evans

Pertamina Campos Racing

1:30.720

15

16.

Arthur Pic

Rapax

1:30.722

19

17.

Jimmy Eriksson

Arden International

1:30.742

17

18.

Gustav Malja

Rapax

1:30.823

21

19

Sergio Canamasas

Carlin

1:31.015

17

20.

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Campos Racing

1:31.304

15

21.

Nabil Jeffri

Arden International

1:31.577

16

22.

Philo Paz Armand

Trident

1:32.803

21

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