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Marciello tops first day of post-season GP2 test

GP2 frontrunner Raffaele Marciello set the pace on the opening day of the series' post-season test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Raffaele Marciello, Trident

Raffaele Marciello, Trident

GP2 Media Service

Raffaele Marciello, Trident
Raffaele Marciello, Trident
Nobuharu Matsushita, ART Grand Prix
Antonio Giovinazzi, Arden International
Antonio Fuoco, PREMA Racing
Charles Leclerc, PREMA Racing

Marciello, reuniting for the test with the Trident team he had raced for in 2015, was runner-up in the opening session and assumed the lead in the closing minutes of the afternoon run, with a lap of 1m48.937s.

The morning run was headed by ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita, the Honda protege posting a 1m49.483s benchmark an hour into the session.

Marciello was second heading into the midday break, with only Artem Markelov – the Italian's regular-season teammate at Russian Time – joining the trio below 1m50s.

Times ramped up quickly in the afternoon, GP3 champion Charles Leclerc and Jordan King surpassing Matsushita's earlier benchmark, although the Japanese driver had gone quicker himself as well and was now top at 1m49.307s.

Shortly thereafter, he was overhauled by Marciello and Nicholas Latifi, the former becoming the first driver in the test to log a sub-1m49s lap.

The Italian would remain unmatched until a red flag caused by a Markelov stoppage ended the day's running early.

Matsushita finished the afternoon session in second, ahead of DAMS pair Oliver Rowland and Latifi, with Johnny Cecotto (Rapax) in fifth matching the Canadian's laptime.

New Prema signing Leclerc was top rookie in sixth, ahead of Russian Time duo King and Markelov, Luca Ghiotto (Rapax) and Sean Gelael.

Series runner-up Antonio Giovinazzi, running alongside Gelael at Arden, was 11th.

Day 1 results

Pos. Driver Team AM PM
1 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:49.767 1:48.937
2 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:49.483 1:49.107
3 Oliver Rowland DAMS 1:50.550 1:49.182
4 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:50.635 1:49.247
5 Johnny Cecotto Rapax 1:50.411 1:49.247
6 Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing 1:50.958 1:49.265
7 Jordan King RUSSIAN TIME 1:50.272 1:49.348
8 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:49.892 1:49.426
9 Luca Ghiotto Rapax 1:50.593 1:49.467
10 Sean Gelael Arden International 1:50.594 1:49.709
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Arden International 1:51.033 1:49.813
12 Louis Deletraz Racing Engineering 1:50.922 1:49.854
13 Alex Palou Pertamina Campos Racing 1:50.942 1:49.870
14 Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1:51.277 1:49.945
15 Gustav Malja Racing Engineering 1:50.763 1:49.947
16 Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing 1:50.940 1:50.046
17 Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:51.269 1:50.187
18 Egor Orudzhev Pertamina Campos Racing 1:51.050 1:50.582
19 Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1:51.509 DSQ*
20 Felix Serralles Carlin 1:54.249 1:51.656
21 Mahaveer Raghunathan Carlin 1:54.075 1:52.245
22 Salvatore De Plano MP Motorsport 1:58.844 1:55.584

*car found underweight

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