Photo: Glenn Dunbar/GP2 Series Media Service
Pierre Gasly pipped GP2 form man Stoffel Vandoorne to top the times at the end of the first day of post-season testing in Abu Dhabi.
Gasly, who succeeded Vandoorne and Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up this year, is testing with DAMS ahead of an expected full-time drive in GP2 in 2015.
After Vandoorne had topped the morning running, Gasly became the only driver to go below the 1m49s mark with a 1m48.948s.
ART driver Vandoorne improved his own time but fell 0.004s shy of joining Gasly in the 1m48s.
European F3 graduate Jordan King was third quickest for Arden ahead of series regulars Arthur Pic, Andre Negrao and Mitch Evans.
GP2 debutant Richie Stanaway was seventh, exactly a tenth ahead of Status Grand Prix team-mate Rio Haryanto. European F3 champion Esteban Ocon repeated his ninth place from the morning in the second DAMS entry, with Lazarus regular Nathanael Berthon completing the top ten.
On Friday, GP3 champion Alex Lynn will make his GP2 debut for Carlin in place of Luis Sa Silva before heading to ART on Saturday in Vandoorne’s car, which will be driven on day two by Euroformula Open champion Sandy Stuvik. Norman Nato moves from Racing Engineering to Russian Time in place of Mitch Evans, with the Spanish squad fielding Jazeman Jaafar and Simon Trummer.
Nicholas Latifi will return to Hilmer after a day with Racing Engineering and will be joined by Emil Bernstorff. Rapax will field Kevin Ceccon and newcomer Sergey Sirotkin, while Status will run Raffaele Marciello and Dino Zamparelli. Beitske Visser will replace Sergio Campana at Lazarus, and Haryanto will move over to Campos in place of Jaafar.
Day 1, session 2 results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
Laps |
| 1 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1:48.948 | 27 | |
| 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1:49.004 | 0.056 | 31 |
| 3 | Jordan King | Arden International | 1:49.314 | 0.366 | 21 |
| 4 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:49.383 | 0.435 | 21 |
| 5 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:49.396 | 0.448 | 21 |
| 6 | Mitch Evans | Russian Time | 1:49.442 | 0.494 | 17 |
| 7 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1:49.589 | 0.641 | 30 |
| 8 | Rio Haryanto | Status Grand Prix | 1:49.689 | 0.741 | 28 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | DAMS | 1:49.892 | 0.944 | 26 |
| 10 | Nathanael Berthon | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:49.941 | 0.993 | 23 |
| 11 | Rene Binder | Trident | 1:50.016 | 1.068 | 15 |
| 12 | Daniel Abt | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:50.084 | 1.136 | 29 |
| 13 | Emil Bernstorff | Rapax | 1:50.118 | 1.170 | 31 |
| 14 | Nicholas Latifi | Racing Engineering | 1:50.155 | 1.207 | 27 |
| 15 | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:50.263 | 1.315 | 13 |
| 16 | Jazeman Jaafar | Campos Racing | 1:50.338 | 1.390 | 23 |
| 17 | Koudai Tsukakoshi | ART Grand Prix | 1:50.352 | 1.404 | 31 |
| 18 | Marvin Kirchhofer | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:50.372 | 1.424 | 27 |
| 19 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:50.488 | 1.540 | 17 |
| 20 | Zoel Amberg | Trident | 1:50.782 | 1.834 | 28 |
| 21 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:50.871 | 1.923 | 16 |
| 22 | Sergio Campana | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:51.147 | 2.199 | 30 |
| 23 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1:51.318 | 2.370 | 26 |
| 24 | Sandy Stuvik | Rapax | 1:51.403 | 2.455 | 22 |
| 25 | Marlon Stockinger | MP Motorsport | 1:51.420 | 2.472 | 17 |
| 26 | Luis Sa Silva | Carlin | 1:51.529 | 2.581 | 27 |