It has been a fruitful day for Briton Jordan King (right) who set the best laptime in a 1:24.449 in the morning session – one tenth quicker than rookie Antonio Giovinazzi and Nobuharu Matsushita. In the afternoon, Rapax Gustav Malja was quickest.

Cold temperatures and sunny conditions graced the paddock this morning on day 2 of the second pre-season test at Circuito de Jerez, Spain. When the track went green, the pair of DAMS drivers were first to feed onto the track, soon followed by the rest of the field. King set the early pace in 1:26.048 on Hard Pirelli tyres but Sergey Sirotkin bettered the Briton’s laptime and topped the timesheets in a 1:25.710.

Thirty minutes into the session, all cars had completed at least one installation lap. Yesterday’s quickest driver Norman Nato was the first man to dip under 1m25s but Giovinazzi found some extra pace to lap the Spanish track in a 1:24.545. King reclaimed P1 after improving on the Italian’s best time by one tenth.

One hour into the session, Medium Pirelli tyres made an appearance on several cars. There was a first short red flag period courtesy of Raffaele Marciello who ran wide at Turn 14 and clipped the barrier before returning to the pits. Soon after the restart, Sirotkin caused a second red flag period by clipping the barrier at Turn 15. The remaining two hours of the session saw the teams concentrate on their testing programme.

In the closing stages, the proceedings were shortly halted for a third time after Luca Ghiotto stopped on track between turns 7 and 8. At the chequered flag, King remained top ahead of Giovinazzi and Matsushita. Pierre Gasly, Nato, Sirotkin, Alex Lynn, Arthur Pic, Gustav Malja and Ghiotto completed the top ten.

The afternoon session opened in warmer temperatures with Swede Gustav Malja setting the early pace in a 1:26.319. In the opening hour, Marciello caused a brief red flag period after he stopped on track between Turns 6 and 7. After the restart, teams and drivers focused mainly on long runs, practice starts and pit stops. The remainder of the day was trouble-free with Racing Engineering’s King completing the most laps (72).

When the session concluded, Malja headed Lynn and Giovinazzi. Artem Markelov, Daniël De Jong, Nicholas Latifi, Mitch Evans, Pic, Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland rounded the top ten.

Morning results

1. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:24.429
2. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:24.545
3. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:24.579
4. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:24.594
5. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:24.634
6. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:24.689
7. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:24.696
8. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:25.049
9. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:25.088
10. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:25.098
11. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:25.202
12. Raffaele Marciello Russian Time 1:25.241
13. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:25.259
14. Mitch Evans Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:25.398
15. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:25.671
16. Daniël De Jong MP Motorsport 1:25.763
17. Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:25.867
18. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:26.081
19. Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:26.136
20. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:26.301
21. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:26.493

Afternoon results

1. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:26.319
2. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:26.340
3. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:26.750
4. Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:27.000
5. Daniël De Jong MP Motorsport 1:27.044
6. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:27.060
7. Mitch Evans Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:27.328
8. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:27.341
9. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:27.612
10. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:27.651
11. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:27.662
12. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:28.228
13. Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:29.235
14. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:30.392
15. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:30.762
16. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:31.010
17. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:31.094
18. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:31.285
19. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:31.346
20. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:31.668
21. Raffaele Marciello Russian Time 1:31.840