Home Formula 2 Nicholas Latifi takes over top spot with DAMS at end of day two

Nicholas Latifi takes over top spot with DAMS at end of day two

by Peter Allen
Nicholas Latifi

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