ART Grand Prix’s Esteban Ocon tops first session in Bahrain

Frenchman Esteban Ocon led the way in the opening session at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. The ART Grand Prix driver’s best laptime of 1:47.121 was three tenths quicker than Koiranen GP’s Matthew Parry. Carlin and Ferrari Academy Driver Antonio Fuoco was third.

Sakhir marks a new track on the calendar for the GP3 Series for Round 8 of the 2015 season. There was one change to the driver line-up; Matevos Isaakyan replaces Adderly Fong at Koiranen GP for this event.

With scorching temperatures greeting the paddock for Free Practice, the drivers were eager to make full use of the forty-five minute session with the majority of drivers new to the circuit and keen to get to grips with the challenging layout.

Carlin’s Jann Mardenborough was first to set the pace in the 1m48’s before Trident’s Artur Janosz took command of the session. The Polish driver held top spot for the most part of the session. Jenzer Motorsport’s Matheo Tuscher rose to second with Parry and Arden International’s Kevin Ceccon hot on their heels.

Series leader Luca Ghiotto shot up to third but the all the action was to come in the final moments. Debutant Isaakyan jumped to the top of the timings by almost half a second before the ART Grand Prix duo of Marvin Kirchhöfer and then Ocon topped the timesheet.

Ocon was first to lap in the 1m47’s and as the chequered flag came out, Parry and Fuoco improved to finish in the top three. Kirchhöfer was fourth ahead of Mitchell Gilbert, Isaakyan, Konstantin Tereshchenko, Artur Janosz, Matheo Tuscher and Ghiotto.

Qualifying takes place in just a few hours at 12:40pm. The four points on pole could prove very decisive in the fight for the title…