Photo: Zak Mauger/GP2 Series Media Service
Nicholas Latifi went one better in his GP2 tests with DAMS to top the evening session on day two in Abu Dhabi.
Driving the car taken to three poles in the final four events of the season by Pierre Gasly, Latifi had been second quickest on Wednesday evening and then again on Thursday morning.
The evening action, having already been delayed by quarter of an hour because of an incident at the end of GP3 running, was halted for around 40 minutes when Felix Rosenqvist crashed his Prema car due to a stuck throttle and hit Tecpro barriers.
After the restart with an hour and 20 minutes left, Latifi – who contested four GP2 rounds this year with MP Motorsport – took over at the top of the times with a 1m47.860s.
That was over a second faster than Artem Markelov‘s morning benchmark, and marginally faster than Nobuharu Matsushita went on Wednesday.
Norman Nato replaced Matsushita at ART and ended the day second, 0.175s slower.
Top 2015 rookies Sergey Sirotkin and Alex Lynn completed the top four with their Rapax and DAMS teams respectively.
Birthday boy Nick Yelloly took fifth for MP Motorsport ahead of Rapax tester Andre Negrao and the Russian Time duo of Gasly and Markelov.
Mitch Evans was ninth on his day with the Campos team he’s expected to race for next season, with Jordan King 10th for Racing Engineering.
GP3 graduate Jimmy Eriksson narrowly missed out on the top 10 but was the best GP2 newcomer in 11th.
European Formula 3 runner-up Antonio Giovinazzi took 18th in his maiden GP2 chance with Carlin.
Day two evening session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1:47.860 | 27 | |
| 2 | Norman Nato | ART Grand Prix | 1:48.035 | 0.175 | 28 |
| 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1:48.108 | 0.248 | 28 |
| 4 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:48.265 | 0.405 | 24 |
| 5 | Nick Yelloly | MP Motorsport | 1:48.297 | 0.437 | 19 |
| 6 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:48.247 | 0.387 | 27 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | Russian Time | 1:48.356 | 0.496 | 31 |
| 8 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:48.691 | 0.831 | 21 |
| 9 | Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | 1:48.696 | 0.836 | 29 |
| 10 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:48.754 | 0.894 | 16 |
| 11 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1:48.769 | 0.909 | 21 |
| 12 | Marlon Stockinger | ART Grand Prix | 1:48.887 | 1.027 | 27 |
| 13 | Dean Stoneman | Carlin | 1:49.060 | 1.200 | 26 |
| 14 | Alex Fontana | Status Grand Prix | 1:49.119 | 1.259 | 26 |
| 15 | Oliver Rowland | Prema Racing | 1:49.156 | 1.296 | 17 |
| 16 | Richard Gonda | MP Motorsport | 1:49.278 | 1.418 | 22 |
| 17 | Felix Rosenqvist | Prema Racing | 1:49.296 | 1.436 | 11 |
| 18 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Carlin | 1:49.363 | 1.503 | 31 |
| 19 | Gustav Malja | Arden International | 1:49.378 | 1.518 | 22 |
| 20 | Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 1:49.549 | 1.689 | 31 |
| 21 | Luca Ghiotto | Racing Engineering | 1:49.570 | 1.710 | 26 |
| 22 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 1:49.759 | 1.899 | 23 |
| 23 | Philo Armand | Status Grand Prix | 1:50.834 | 2.974 | 28 |