Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Media Service
Mitch Evans carried his pre-season pace into the opening session of the 2014 GP2 Series in Bahrain as he led star rookies Stoffel Vandoorne and Raffaele Marciello in free practice.
Driving for the now-iSport-run Russian Time squad, Evans set a time of 1m42.062s. Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up Vandoorne was just 0.062s behind for ART Grand Prix.
FIA F3 European champion Marciello claimed third for Racing Engineering, 0.207s off the pace of Evans, with Daniel Abt fourth for the Force India-backed Hilmer Motorsport team.
Stephane Richelmi was the lead DAMS entry in fifth ahead of Bahrain test pace-setter Rio Haryanto of Caterham.
Andre Negrao took seventh in his first GP2 session with Arden ahead of Jolyon Palmer (DAMS), Simon Trummer (Rapax) and Conor Daly (Lazarus).
Daniel De Jong brought an early end to the session when his car stopped at turn two with less than two minutes left on the clock.
2014 GP2 Series driver-by-driver season preview
Practice results
| Pos | Drivers | Teams | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Mitch Evans | Russian Time | 1:42.062 | 11 | |
| 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.124 | 0.062 | 12 |
| 3 | Raffaele Marciello | Racing Engineering | 1:42.269 | 0.207 | 13 |
| 4 | Daniel Abt | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:42.319 | 0.257 | 10 |
| 5 | Stephane Richelmi | DAMS | 1:42.373 | 0.311 | 12 |
| 6 | Rio Haryanto | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:42.388 | 0.326 | 12 |
| 7 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:42.507 | 0.445 | 12 |
| 8 | Jolyon Palmer | DAMS | 1:42.533 | 0.471 | 12 |
| 9 | Simon Trummer | Rapax | 1:42.553 | 0.491 | 13 |
| 10 | Conor Daly | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:42.574 | 0.512 | 14 |
| 11 | Takuya Izawa | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.606 | 0.544 | 11 |
| 12 | Stefano Coletti | Racing Engineering | 1:42.607 | 0.545 | 12 |
| 13 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:42.629 | 0.567 | 11 |
| 14 | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:42.653 | 0.591 | 14 |
| 15 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:42.664 | 0.602 | 12 |
| 16 | Felipe Nasr | Carlin | 1:42.707 | 0.645 | 11 |
| 17 | Alexander Rossi | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:42.959 | 0.897 | 13 |
| 18 | Johnny Cecotto | Trident | 1:42.984 | 0.922 | 12 |
| 19 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | Rapax | 1:42.997 | 0.935 | 11 |
| 20 | Rene Binder | Arden International | 1:43.071 | 1.009 | 11 |
| 21 | Jon Lancaster | MP Motorsport | 1:43.076 | 1.014 | 11 |
| 22 | Nathanael Berthon | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:43.307 | 1.245 | 12 |
| 23 | Facu Regalia | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:43.547 | 1.485 | 13 |
| 24 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:43.815 | 1.753 | 10 |
| 25 | Axcil Jefferies | Trident | 1:43.842 | 1.780 | 16 |
| 26 | Kimiya Sato | Campos Racing | 1:44.243 | 2.181 | 11 |