King sets day-one pace in Bahrain GP2 test

The British driver posted a best time of 1:41.494 in the afternoon session to put his Racing Engineering on top of the times ahead of the Russian Time car of Mitch Evans.

The New Zealander, quickest in the morning session, finished just over a tenth of a second behind King.

Sergey Sirotkin in the Rapax machine was third, ahead of Carlin's Norman Nato and McLaren junior Stoffel Vandoorne, driving for ART.

Evans caused the day to finish slightly earlier than planned when he stopped at Turn 3 with a few minutes left on the clock.

The top 15 times of the day were set in the afternoon session, which took place in a scorching heat.

The field was pretty much unchanged compared to the first test of 2015 in Abu Dhabi.

Nick Yelloly joined Hilmer, while Spaniard Sergio Canamasas moved to MP Motorsport for today's session.

The test continues tomorrow.

Morning session

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Mitch Evans	RUSSIAN TIME	1:42.479		10
2	Norman Nato	Arden International	1:42.653	0.174	22
3	Marco Sørensen	Carlin	1:42.689	0.210	14
4	Nathanael Berthon	Lazarus	1:42.712	0.233	16
5	Julian Leal	Carlin	1:42.728	0.249	4
6	Sfoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:42.779	0.300	35
7	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1:42.800	0.321	14
8	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1:42.801	0.322	10
9	Andre Negrao	Arden International	1:42.953	0.474	26
10	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1:43.015	0.536	10
11	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	1:43.016	0.537	7
12	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1:43.042	0.563	22
13	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1:43.101	0.622	16
14	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:43.226	0.747	3
15	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1:43.347	0.868	18
16	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1:43.357	0.878	14
17	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	1:43.391	0.912	16
18	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1:43.455	0.976	14
19	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	1:43.766	1.287	14
20	Robert Visoiu	Rapax	1:43.826	1.347	14
21	Marlon Stockinger	Status Grand Prix	1:43.876	1.397	19
22	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1:44.022	1.543	10
23	Zoel Amberg	Lazarus	1:44.333	1.854	28
24	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:44.392	1.913	26
25	Rene Binder	Trident	1:44.416	1.937	10

Afternoon session

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1'41.494		20
2	Mitchell Evans	RUSSIAN TIME	1'41.608	0.114	14
3	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1'41.636	0.142	12
4	Norman Nato	Arden International	1'41.755	0.261	16
5	S.Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1'41.851	0.357	22
6	Marco Sørensen	Carlin	1'41.861	0.367	16
7	Julian Leal	Carlin	1'41.985	0.491	13
8	N.Berthon	Lazarus	1'42.004	0.510	13
9	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1'42.015	0.521	14
10	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1'42.038	0.544	13
11	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1'42.201	0.707	20
12	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	1'42.301	0.807	9
13	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1'42.301	0.807	15
14	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	1'42.365	0.871	22
15	R.Marciello	Trident	1'42.431	0.937	9
16	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1'42.461	0.967	11
17	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1'42.608	1.114	18
18	Robert Visoiu	Rapax	1'42.628	1.134	11
19	Andre Negrao	Arden International	1'42.700	1.206	10
20	N.Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1'43.181	1.687	19
21	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1'43.207	1.713	15
22	Zoel Amberg	Lazarus	1'43.383	1.889	17
23	M.Stöckinger	Status Grand Prix	1'43.398	1.904	13
24	Rene Binder	Trident	1'43.902	2.408	6
25	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1'44.630	3.136	8