Newly crowned GP3 champion Mitch Evans showed good pace in his first official testing of a GP2 car during two days at the Barcelona circuit in Spain this week.

The 18-year-old Kiwi quickly adapted to the dramatic increase in power from GP3 to GP2.

“It was a big step up from GP3 but I got the hang of it quickly,” Evans said. “The engine has so much more grunt. My first impression was that it was an absolute animal..

“On the first day it seemed the car was more in control of me than I was in control of the car, but I settled in well and I think we were really competitive.”

On Tuesday Evans was ninth fastest in the morning session. He quickly set the fastest rookie time in the 27-car line up and improved to be eighth fastest in the afternoon session.

“It was a bit like the first time I tested a GP3 car. The details come to you as you spend more time in the car. The GP2 is a lot more physically hard to drive and there is more technology to learn – there’s a lot more detail with these bigger cars.”

Evans ran 64 laps in the two Tuesday sessions but rain fell on the morning of the second day and was still drying during the afternoon run.

“We were competitive on the second day but there were lots of incidents. Both runs I had on new tyres were compromised by red flags. We were more competitive than the times indicate – and there is plenty more to come,” said Evans.

The second official GP2 testing is at the Jerez circuit in the Andalucia region of southern Spain on November 22-23. Before then, Evans has been invited to drive the prototype of the new Dallara GP3 car during the next official GP3 testingin Portugal on November 6-7.