Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service
Jordan King finished the first day of the GP2 pre-season test in Bahrain with the best time in the afternoon session.
The British rookie held the lead for the middle of the three hours of running, before returning to top spot with 30 minutes left.
The Racing Engineering driver’s time of?1m41.494s knocked nearly a second off Mitch Evans‘ benchmark from the morning.
Evans triggered the day’s only red flag to bring an early end to the session, but the Kiwi had already got himself up into second place, [some time] off King.
Sergey Sirotkin got up to third with his final lap ahead of fellow ex-Formula Renault 3.5 racers Norman Nato, Stoffel Vandoorne and Marco Sorensen.
Sorensen’s Carlin team-mate Julian Leal was next up in seventh followed by French duo Nathanael Berthon and Pierre Gasly, with the top ten rounded out by Evans’ fellow Russian Time driver Artem Markelov.
Afternoon session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:41.494 | 20 | |
| 2 | Mitch Evans | Russian Time | 1:41.608 | 0.114 | 14 |
| 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1:41.636 | 0.142 | 12 |
| 4 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1:41.755 | 0.261 | 16 |
| 5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1:41.851 | 0.357 | 22 |
| 6 | Marco Sorensen | Carlin | 1:41.861 | 0.367 | 16 |
| 7 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:41.985 | 0.491 | 13 |
| 8 | Nathanael Berthon | Lazarus | 1:42.004 | 0.510 | 13 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1:42.015 | 0.521 | 14 |
| 10 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:42.038 | 0.544 | 13 |
| 11 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1:42.201 | 0.707 | 20 |
| 12 | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:42.301 | 0.807 | 9 |
| 13 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:42.301 | 0.807 | 14 |
| 14 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1:42.365 | 0.871 | 22 |
| 15 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1:42.431 | 0.937 | 9 |
| 16 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:42.461 | 0.967 | 11 |
| 17 | Nick Yelloly | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:42.608 | 1.114 | 18 |
| 18 | Robert Visoiu | Rapax | 1:42.628 | 1.134 | 11 |
| 19 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:42.700 | 1.206 | 10 |
| 20 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:43.181 | 1.687 | 19 |
| 21 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1:43.207 | 1.713 | 15 |
| 22 | Zoel Amberg | Lazarus | 1:43.383 | 1.889 | 17 |
| 23 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1:43.398 | 1.904 | 13 |
| 24 | Rene Binder | Trident | 1:43.902 | 2.408 | 6 |
| 25 | Sergio Canamasas | MP Motorsport | 1:44.630 | 3.136 | 8 |