Autosport

Red Bull protege Pierre Gasly completed a dominant week of Abu Dhabi GP2 testing with DAMS by setting the pace in both Saturday sessions.

The Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up, who told AUTOSPORT earlier this month that GP2 was his preference for 2015, contested the final part of this season with Caterham and did not manage to score.

But he has proved unstoppable with champion team DAMS in post-season testing, heading all three days of running at Yas Marina.

Gasly was half a second clear of the field in both Saturday sessions. European Formula 3 champion and Lotus Formula 1 junior Esteban Ocon was second in the sister DAMS car in the afternoon, while Jordan King – testing for MP – had been next best in the morning.

Both Ocon and King were frontrunners all day, with the Frenchman completing the session one top three and the Briton fourth later on behind already-signed 2015 Campos racer Arthur Pic.

After his try-out with Status on Friday, Ferrari Driver Academy member Raffaele Marciello was back with his 2014 squad Racing Engineering. He was fifth in the morning and ninth in session two.

GP3 champion Alex Lynn completed a week that has encompassed sealing his title,making his F1 test debut with Lotus and sampling GP2 for the first time with Carlin by switching to ART for Saturday.

He was in the top 10 in both sessions, though he caused the final red flag of the year by stopping on track late in the evening.

The day’s only other stoppage came when FR3.5 regular Beitske Visser parked her Lazarus car earlier in the day.

Sometime Sauber F1 tester and FR3.5 race winner Sergey Sirotkin had a second day of GP2 running with Rapax and was in the top six all day.

Another man to set an eye-catching time in his first week of GP2 was GP3 frontrunner Dino Zamparelli, who was seventh for Status in the morning.

Mitch Evans was among the GP2 regulars trying different cars. A two-time race winner and fourth in the standings with Russian Time this year, he sampled Racing Engineering’s second car on Saturday (pictured above), while Auto GP champion Kimiya Sato occupied Evans’s usual seat.

The Campos car Sato has raced in GP2 this year was handed over to Rio Haryanto, who was fourth in the morning.

RESULTS

Session one:

PosDriverTeamTimeGapLaps
1Pierre GaslyDAMS1m49.346s29
2Jordan KingMP Motorsport1m49.891s0.545s23
3Esteban OconDAMS1m49.939s0.593s24
4Rio HaryantoCampos Racing1m49.943s0.597s35
5Raffaele MarcielloRacing Engineering1m49.993s0.647s27
6Sergey SirotkinRapax1m50.057s0.711s19
7Kevin CecconRapax1m50.063s0.717s21
8Alex LynnART Grand Prix1m50.132s0.786s28
9Arthur PicCampos Racing1m50.255s0.909s26
10Norman NatoArden International1m50.299s0.953s27
11Mitchell EvansRacing Engineering1m50.303s0.957s33
12Nathanael BerthonVenezuela GP Lazarus1m50.445s1.099s33
13Artem MarkelovRT RUSSIAN TIME1m50.501s1.155s22
14Emil BernstorffCarlin1m50.510s1.164s30
15Julian LealCarlin1m50.589s1.243s28
16Kimiya SatoRT RUSSIAN TIME1m50.618s1.272s18
17Andre NegraoArden International1m50.626s1.280s18
18Marlon StockingerMP Motorsport1m50.691s1.345s31
19Nicholas LatifiHilmer Motorsport1m50.794s1.448s23
20Simon TrummerTrident1m50.817s1.471s31
21Dino ZamparelliStatus Grand Prix1m50.825s1.479s25
22Beitske VisserVenezuela GP Lazarus1m51.156s1.810s30
23Rene BinderHilmer Motorsport1m51.183s1.837s29
24Pal VarhaugStatus Grand Prix1m51.742s2.396s26
25Sandy StuvikART Grand Prix1m51.785s2.439s35
26Luis Jorge Sa SilvaTrident1m51.821s2.475s34

Session two:

PosDriverTeamTimeGapLaps
1Pierre GaslyDAMS1m48.231s24
2Esteban OconDAMS1m48.798s0.567s27
3Arthur PicCampos Racing1m49.091s0.860s32
4Jordan KingMP Motorsport1m49.129s0.898s26
5Sergey SirotkinRapax1m49.200s0.969s27
6Rio HaryantoCampos Racing1m49.206s0.975s31
7Dino ZamparelliStatus Grand Prix1m49.265s1.034s31
8Nathanael BerthonVenezuela GP Lazarus1m49.266s1.035s26
9Raffaele MarcielloRacing Engineering1m49.285s1.054s32
10Alex LynnART Grand Prix1m49.306s1.075s30
11Kevin CecconRapax1m49.369s1.138s25
12Artem MarkelovRT RUSSIAN TIME1m49.492s1.261s30
13Norman NatoArden International1m49.537s1.306s30
14Andre NegraoArden International1m49.577s1.346s25
15Mitchell EvansRacing Engineering1m49.595s1.364s25
16Nicholas LatifiHilmer Motorsport1m49.607s1.376s30
17Emil BernstorffCarlin1m49.628s1.397s27
18Marlon StockingerMP Motorsport1m49.672s1.441s36
19Rene BinderHilmer Motorsport1m50.004s1.773s23
20Julian LealCarlin1m50.026s1.795s27
21Kimiya SatoRT RUSSIAN TIME1m50.165s1.934s32
22Pal VarhaugStatus Grand Prix1m50.217s1.986s35
23Luis Jorge Sa SilvaTrident1m50.313s2.082s24
24Simon TrummerTrident1m50.436s2.205s29
25Sandy StuvikART Grand Prix1m50.480s2.249s28
26Beitske VisserVenezuela GP Lazarus1m50.624s2.393s20

Red Bull protege Pierre Gasly completes GP2 testing sweep

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