ART Grand Prix’s Sergey Sirotkin set the pace on the first day of pre-season GP2 testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
The Russian driver put in a 1:29.072 late in the morning session to go quickest, in dry conditions. Wet weather meant Sirotkin remained at the top of the timesheets for the day.
Pierre Gasly was second for new team Prema Racing, just under one tenth further back, with his former team-mate Alex Lynn in third. Norman Nato, Mitch Evans, Jordan King and Arthur Pic were next up.
Antonio Giovinazzi was eighth in the second Prema car, with Sean Gelael and Nobuharu Matsushita competing the top 10 for Campos and ART respectively.
GP3 runner-up Luca Ghiotto was 11th, ahead of Daniel de Jong, Nicholas Latifi, Artem Markelov, Raffaele Marciehllo and recently-confirmed Carlin driver Marvin Kirchhofer.
Gustav Malja was 17th, bringing out a red flag in the afternoon after his car stopped in the gravel at Turn 5. It was one of several stoppages, with Nabil Jeffri and Oliver Rowland also causing red flags.
Will Buller, Rowland, Philo Paz Armand, Jimmy Eriksson and Jeffri completed the 22 runners who took part on the first day of GP2 testing.
There will be a few changes to the driver line-up for day two. Status Grand Prix will appear with Sergio Canamasas and Meindert van Buuren, while Rene Binder will replace Buller in the second Carlin.
