Alexander Rossi looked on a mission in this morning’s free practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit: the American driver set the quickest lap time in a 1:41.180 – three hundredths better than newly crowned GP2 Champion Stoffel Vandoorne. Red Bull protégé Pierre Gasly finished the session in third place.

The pitlane opened in high temperature as the twenty-four GP2 cars fed onto the track with Medium Pirelli tyres. Gasly was quick to find his marks on the Bahraini track to go top ahead of Raffaele Marciello.

Ten minutes into the session, Vandoorne found some extra pace to go fastest, but the Belgian driver was edged out of the top spot just seconds later as Rossi improved as well. The rest of the session was trouble free with the teams and drivers working on their set ups and race simulations.

At the chequered flag, Rossi was unchallenged ahead of Vandoorne and Gasly. Nobuharu Matsushita who had qualified P2 on this same track earlier this season finished today’s free practice session in fourth ahead of Sergey Sirotkin, Marciello, Alex Lynn, Jordan King, Arthur Pic and Rio Haryanto. The top eighteen drivers finished within one second.

1. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:41.180
2. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:41.213
3. Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:41.230
4. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:41.253
5. Sergei Sirotkin Rapax 1:41.345
6. Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:41.427
7. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:41.507
8. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:41.529
9. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:41.535
10. Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:41.610
11. Norman Nato Arden International 1:41.688
12. Rene Binder MP Motorsport 1:41.729
13. Sergio Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus 1:41.747
14. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:41.849
15. Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1:41.943
16. Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:42.006
17. Nathanaël Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus 1:42.150
18. André Negrao Arden International 1:42.173
19 Dean Stoneman Carlin 1:42.453
20. Nicholas Latifi MP Motorsport 1:42.523
21. Daniiel De Jong Trident 1:42.864
22. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:43.302
23. Oliver Rowland Status Grand Prix 1:43.342
24. Sean Gelael Carlin 1:44.400