Fabio Leimer set the fastest time in practice for the second race weekend of the GP2 Series season at Sakhir in Bahrain.
Sepang feature race winner Leimer hit the top of the timesheets from the get-go in his Racing Engineering entry.
His first flying lap was a 1m42.369s, and after a cool-down lap, he went flat-out again and set a 1m41.361s, holding a huge advantage over his rivals in the second sector in particular.
Sam Bird ended the session in second for the new Russian Time team, but was 1.06 seconds slower than Leimer. Championship leader Stefano Coletti, the Sepang sprint race winner, was third fastest for Rapax.
Category returnee Alexander Rossi was an impressive fourth fastest for Caterham Racing, ahead of Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr and James Calado.
All cars ran on the harder compound Pirelli tyre, as teams concentrated on race set-up. Spots of rain fell during the session, but with a track temperature between 38C-41C that was never a major issue.
Formula Renault 3.5 champion Robin Frijns made his GP2 debut for Hilmer Motorsport, and spun during session, which he ended 23rd – 2.5s off the pace.
Other incidents of note included Julien Leal stalling at the end of the pitlane before his second run, which led to race stewards investigating whether his Racing Engineering mechanics restarted the car outside of the pitlane limits.
Johnny Cecotto had a lively session, his Arden car smoking profusely at high speed early on, and later he suffered a big lock-up at Turn 1, then an overshoot elsewhere. He was ninth fastest behind the second Russian Time car of Tom Dillmann.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1m41.361s 2. Sam Bird Russian Time 1m42.421s + 1.060s 3. Stefano Coletti Rapax 1m42.628s + 1.267s 4. Alexander Rossi Caterham 1m42.636s + 1.275s 5. Marcus Ericsson DAMS 1m42.666s + 1.305s 6. Felipe Nasr Carlin 1m42.687s + 1.326s 7. James Calado ART 1m42.718s + 1.357s 8. Tom Dillmann Russian Time 1m42.734s + 1.373s 9. Johnny Cecotto Arden 1m42.803s + 1.442s 10. Daniel Abt ART 1m42.943s + 1.582s 11. Stephane Richelmi DAMS 1m43.035s + 1.674s 12. Simon Trummer Rapax 1m43.054s + 1.693s 13. Mitch Evans Arden 1m43.063s + 1.702s 14. Sergio Canamasas Caterham 1m43.092s + 1.731s 15. Julian Leal Racing Engineering 1m43.156s + 1.795s 16. Jolyon Palmer Carlin 1m43.188s + 1.827s 17. Kevin Ceccon Trident 1m43.271s + 1.910s 18. Kevin Giovesi Lazarus 1m43.280s + 1.919s 19. Jake Rosenzweig Addax 1m43.310s + 1.949s 20. Rio Haryanto Addax 1m43.356s + 1.995s 21. Rene Binder Lazarus 1m43.620s + 2.259s 22. Nathanael Berthon Trident 1m43.670s + 2.309s 23. Robin Frijns Hilmer 1m43.875s + 2.514s 24. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs MP 1m44.002s + 2.641s 25. Daniel de Jong MP 1m44.200s + 2.839s 26. Pal Varhaug Hilmer 1m44.915s + 3.554s
