Home Formula 2 Stoffel Vandoorne half a second clear in Barcelona GP2 practice

Stoffel Vandoorne half a second clear in Barcelona GP2 practice

by Peter Allen
Stoffel Vandoorne

Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service

Stoffel Vandoorne maintained his superiority over the GP2 field by topping practice in Barcelona by more than half a second.

Driving his ART car with a new livery resembling McLaren’s fresh identity, the championship leader’s best time of 1m30.171s put him 0.518 seconds clear of nearest challenger Mitch Evans.

Alexander Rossi repeated his standings position in third place, followed by Pierre Gasly and Nathanael Berthon.

Richie Stanaway took sixth for Status Grand Prix ahead of Rio Haryanto, who sits second in the points behind Vandoorne after scoring his maiden GP2 win in the Bahrain sprint race.

Alex Lynn was a second off the pace in eighth ahead of Raffaele Marciello – who jumped straight from his Sauber F1 practice berth and straight into his Trident GP2 car for the session – and Artem Markelov.

At the Hilmer team’s first race weekend of the season, Johnny Cecotto was 14th and GP2 debutant Nick Yelloly 23rd.

Session results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:30.171 18
2 Mitch Evans Russian Time 1:30.689 0.518 17
3 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:30.767 0.596 19
4 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:30.810 0.639 20
5 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1:30.818 0.647 16
6 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1:30.943 0.772 17
7 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:31.010 0.839 17
8 Alex Lynn DAMS 1:31.173 1.002 19
9 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:31.191 1.020 21
10 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:31.313 1.142 19
11 Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:31.414 1.243 18
12 Marco Sorensen Carlin 1:31.446 1.275 18
13 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:31.465 1.294 17
14 Johnny Cecotto Hilmer Motorsport 1:31.492 1.321 22
15 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:31.524 1.353 17
16 Andre Negrao Arden International 1:31.540 1.369 20
17 Julian Leal Carlin 1:31.581 1.410 16
18 Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1:31.596 1.425 17
19 Robert Visoiu Rapax 1:31.888 1.717 19
20 Rene Binder Trident 1:32.001 1.830 20
21 Zoel Amberg Lazarus 1:32.046 1.875 19
22 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:32.108 1.937 13
23 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1:32.182 2.011 21
24 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:32.216 2.045 19
25 Norman Nato Arden International 1:32.243 2.072 11
26 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:51.479 21.308 5