Stoneman tops Yas Marina GP3 test

Koiranen GP driver Dean Stoneman topped the opening day of post-season GP3 Series testing at Yas Marina on Tuesday.

Stoneman, who missed three years of open-wheel competition while battling testicular cancer, took a podium finish on his series debut at the track last weekend. The 23-year-old Briton stayed on for the test with Koiranen and set the pace in the morning session in 1m56.278s and improved to a 1m55.829s later on.

Frenchman Pierre Gasly and the man he narrowly beat to the Formula Renault Eurocup title this year, Britain's Oliver Rowland, were second and third for, respectively, the ART and Manor teams. Both were just over a tenth slower than Stoneman.

GP2 runner-up Sam Bird was fourth fastest as Russian Time took part in its first test as a GP3 entrant, Igor Mazepa's squad having now officially taken over Bamboo Engineering's entry. Kevin Korjus, a regular in GP3 with Koiranen this year, was fifth fastest for Status, while ART's Alex Fontana and MW Arden's German F3 champion Marvin Kirchhofer were next up.

Briton Jann Mardenborough, who has raced top-level F3, GT and sportscar machinery this year, was eighth fastest for Carlin ahead of Roman de Beer of Trident and Status driver Nick Cassidy.

All of the top 10 times came in the faster, later session. Stoneman was pushed hardest in the morning by Jenzer's Patric Niederhauser and MW Arden's Dino Zamparelli.

The red flags were brought out twice, both times for incidents involving Jenzer drivers. David Fumanelli tagged a barrier during the morning while Kevin Joerg's car was stranded on-track later on.

Among a number of lineup changes for day two are a switch by Nicholas Latifi from Carlin to Status, where he replaces Jordan King and will be joined by Cassidy and Indy Lights racer Jack Hawksworth. Latifi's Carlin seat will be taken by Luis Sa Silva.