Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service
GP2 debutant Jordan King posted the fastest time in free practice at the opening round of 2015 in Bahrain.
The most notable moment of the session though was title favourite Stoffel Vandoorne stopping at the side of the track in his ART car with just over five minutes remaining. The Belgian will be hoping the problem is resolved in time to go for a fifth consecutive pole position in qualifying later on Friday.
The quickest times were set relatively early in the session before drivers switched focus to longer runs.
King led a Racing Engineering one-two, exactly one hundredth of a second ahead of team-mate Alexander Rossi.
GP3 champion Alex Lynn was third fastest for DAMS ahead of Vandoorne.
Campos Racing duo Arthur Pic and Rio Haryanto completed the top six followed by Pierre Gasly, Mitch Evans and Raffaele Marciello, with Vandoorne’s team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita completing the top ten.
At the end of the session, GP2 conducted a test of the virtual safety car initiative for the first time.
Session results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:42.441 | 17 | |
| 2 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1:42.451 | 0.010 | 20 |
| 3 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:42.509 | 0.068 | 18 |
| 4 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.612 | 0.171 | 14 |
| 5 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:42.948 | 0.507 | 16 |
| 6 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1:43.043 | 0.602 | 16 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1:43.249 | 0.808 | 18 |
| 8 | Mitchell Evans | Russian Time | 1:43.327 | 0.886 | 16 |
| 9 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1:43.400 | 0.959 | 16 |
| 10 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:43.422 | 0.981 | 18 |
| 11 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:43.457 | 1.016 | 18 |
| 12 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:43.581 | 1.140 | 12 |
| 13 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1:43.684 | 1.243 | 15 |
| 14 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1:43.762 | 1.321 | 14 |
| 15 | Marco Sorensen | Carlin | 1:43.774 | 1.333 | 16 |
| 16 | Robert Visoiu | Rapax | 1:43.810 | 1.369 | 13 |
| 17 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1:43.814 | 1.373 | 16 |
| 18 | Sergio Canamasas | MP Motorsport | 1:43.948 | 1.507 | 14 |
| 19 | Nathanael Berthon | Lazarus | 1:44.178 | 1.737 | 14 |
| 20 | Rene Binder | Trident | 1:44.233 | 1.792 | 18 |
| 21 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1:44.515 | 2.074 | 12 |
| 22 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:44.517 | 2.076 | 15 |
| 23 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:44.529 | 2.088 | 14 |
| 24 | Zoel Amberg | Lazarus | 1:51.825 | 9.384 | 5 |