Home Formula 2 Nato fastest as Arden lead Tuesday afternoon session in Abu Dhabi

Nato fastest as Arden lead Tuesday afternoon session in Abu Dhabi

by Peter Allen
Norman Nato

Photo: Jed Leicester/GP2 Series Media Service

Arden International duo?Norman Nato?and?Andre Negrao?went quickest in the afternoon session on day two of GP2 pre-season testing in Abu Dhabi.

Alex Lynn‘s benchmark from the morning remained as the best time of the day, with ex-Formula Renault 3.5 racer Nato’s time of 1m49.697s falling 0.049 seconds short of the Williams development driver.

In another session where long runs were the focus, Negrao was 1.244s slower than his team-mate Nato, who had improved his time with a super-soft run after triggering a red flag when he stopped on track.

Raffaele Marciello was third quickest for the third session in a row. Sergio Canamasas was fourth as he tests for Hilmer this week, followed by Marciello’s Trident team-mate Rene Binder and ART’s title favourite Stoffel Vandoorne, whose week continues to be fairly low-key.

Sergey Sirotkin was seventh for Rapax ahead of his former FR3.5 competitor Zoel Amberg, who is testing with Lazarus. Vandoorne’s new team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita appeared in the top ten for the first time this week in ninth, as did Status tester Richie Stanaway in tenth.

Pierre Gasly‘s fifth day testing a GP2 car since November was the first where he failed to post the fastest time, after playing second fiddle to his DAMS team-mate and former Red Bull stable-mate Lynn in the morning. The duo were 18th and 19th in the afternoon.

Afternoon session results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Norman Nato Arden International 1:49.697 15
2 Andre Negrao Arden International 1:50.941 1.244 15
3 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:50.973 1.276 20
4 Sergio Canamasas Hilmer Motorsport 1:51.171 1.474 21
5 Rene Binder Trident 1:51.219 1.522 17
6 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:51.251 1.554 15
7 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:51.264 1.567 30
8 Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1:51.395 1.698 20
9 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:51.556 1.859 25
10 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1:51.648 1.951 20
11 Mitch Evans Russian Time 1:51.656 1.959 15
12 Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:51.675 1.978 16
13 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:51.783 2.086 14
14 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1:52.012 2.315 6
15 Vittorio Ghirelli MP Motorsport 1:52.133 2.436 19
16 Robert Visoiu Rapax 1:52.196 2.499 19
17 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:52.694 2.997 22
18 Alex Lynn DAMS 1:53.223 3.526 27
19 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:53.550 3.853 28
20 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:53.684 3.987 26
21 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:53.804 4.107 24
22 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:54.024 4.327 20
23 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:54.354 4.657 31
24 Julian Leal Carlin 1:54.735 5.038 30
25 Marco Sorensen Carlin 1:54.818 5.121 13
26 Axcil Jefferies Hilmer Motorsport No time 0