Photo: Jed Leicester/GP2 Series Media Service
New Racing Engineering signing Alexander Rossi posted the quickest time of the opening session of GP2 testing for 2015 on Monday morning.
The three hour session was a fairly quiet one and was suspended for 30 minutes at one stage for software adjustments, as teams got the chance to use the Drag Reduction System (DRS) for the first time. The system had previously been tested on the series development car.
American driver Rossi was fastest on his first occasion behind the wheel of a Racing Engineering car since the end of 2010, driving the circuit where he got his one GP2 victory so far in 2013.
Completing the top three were the DAMS duo of Red Bull Junior Pierre Gasly and the Austrian firm’s former driver Alex Lynn. Gasly had dominated testing in Abu Dhabi back in November, while Lynn was in the hot seat when GP2 tested the DRS in Bahrain last month as a prize for his GP3 title.
Raffaele Marciello was fourth fastest for his new team Trident, ahead of MP Motorsport regular Daniel De Jong and Russian Time’s Mitch Evans.
Trident’s second driver Rene Binder was seventh fastest ahead of Rossi’s team-mate Jordan King. French drivers Nathanael Berthon and Arthur Pic – remaining with the Lazarus and Campos teams respectively for this season – completed the top ten runners.
Richie Stanaway (Status) in 13th was the fastest of the five drivers without seats secured for the coming season, while 2014 runner-up and 2015 title favourite Stoffel Vandoorne was only 23rd quickest for ART, 17 seconds off the pace, but completed the equal most laps of any driver with 30, joint with his old F4 rival Norman Nato (Arden).
Marlon Stockinger brought out a red flag brought out a red flag in the closing stages when he stopped at turn five in the second Status car.
Morning session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1:50.845 | 8 | |
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1:51.298 | 0.453 | 12 |
| 3 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:51.544 | 0.699 | 13 |
| 4 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1:51.605 | 0.760 | 19 |
| 5 | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:51.665 | 0.820 | 17 |
| 6 | Mitch Evans | Russian Time | 1:51.670 | 0.825 | 10 |
| 7 | Rene Binder | Trident | 1:51.779 | 0.934 | 9 |
| 8 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:51.822 | 0.977 | 10 |
| 9 | Nathanael Berthon | Lazarus | 1:52.001 | 1.156 | 10 |
| 10 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:52.020 | 1.175 | 13 |
| 11 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:52.074 | 1.229 | 15 |
| 12 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1:52.103 | 1.258 | 15 |
| 13 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1:52.261 | 1.416 | 14 |
| 14 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1:52.273 | 1.428 | 15 |
| 15 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:53.059 | 2.214 | 16 |
| 16 | Robert Visoiu | Rapax | 1:53.338 | 2.493 | 17 |
| 17 | Sergio Canamasas | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:53.340 | 2.495 | 12 |
| 18 | Marco Sorensen | Carlin | 1:53.366 | 2.521 | 6 |
| 19 | Zoel Amberg | Lazarus | 1:53.565 | 2.720 | 15 |
| 20 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1:53.701 | 2.856 | 15 |
| 21 | Vittorio Ghirelli | MP Motorsport | 1:54.451 | 3.606 | 15 |
| 22 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:54.645 | 3.800 | 21 |
| 23 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 2:08.142 | 17.297 | 30 |
| 24 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 2:15.901 | 25.056 | 30 |
| 25 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 2:25.398 | 34.553 | 23 |
| 26 | Axcil Jefferies | Hilmer Motorsport | No time | 0 |