By alley - Apr 2, 2015, 11:31 AM ET

Honda protege Matsushita leads in GP2 testing

Honda-backed ART Grand Prix driver Nobuharu Matsushita led the way during the second day of GP2's pre-season test in Bahrain.

Preparing for his first racing season outside of Asia, the reigning Japanese Formula 3 champion had been 20th on the opening day and seventh in Thursday's morning running. Amid a flurry of afternoon qualifying simulations that saw times tumble by more than a second in the final 30 minutes, Matsushita recorded a 1m40.191s to top the time sheets.

He edged out Campos Racing's Arthur Pic by 0.159 seconds, while Sauber Formula 1 reserve driver Raffaele Marciello was fastest briefly before being bumped back to third.

Sergey Sirotkin was fourth-fastest, ahead of Marco Sorensen, Stoffel Vandoorne, Daniel de Jong and Sergio Canamasas.

Earlier, Sirotkin topped the morning running, as the only driver to lap below the 1m42s barrier with a time of 1m41.797s.

In a session delayed by an overnight sandstorm, day one pacesetter Jordan King was second, ahead of Alex Lynn, Rio Haryanto, Pic and Vandoorne, though many chose not to run or just completed minimal laps in the conditions.

In the afternoon, Lynn was 17th and King 26th.

MORNING TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1m 41.797s	-	10
2	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1m 42.289s	0.492s	10
3	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1m 42.427s	0.630s	9
4	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1m 42.437s	0.640s	15
5	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1m 42.483s	0.686s	21
6	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1m 42.557s	0.760s	12
7	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1m 42.588s	0.791s	14
8	Julian Leal	Carlin	1m 42.736s	0.939s	5
9	Rene Binder	Trident	1m 43.104s	1.307s	16
10	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1m 43.390s	1.593s	15
11	Robert Visoiu	Rapax	1m 43.580s	1.783s	12
12	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	1m 43.749s	1.952s	4
13	Nathanael Berthon	Lazarus	1m 43.868s	2.071s	8
14	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1m 43.877s	2.080s	9
15	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1m 43.963s	2.166s	4
16	Marco Sorensen	Carlin	1m 44.511s	2.714s	4
17	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1m 44.954s	3.157s	6
18	Zoel Amberg	Lazarus	1m 45.070s	3.273s	8

AFTERNOON TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1m 40.191s	-	31
2	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1m 40.350s	0.159s	27
3	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	1m 40.446s	0.255s	16
4	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1m 40.561s	0.370s	24
5	Marco Sorensen	Carlin	1m 40.658s	0.467s	25
6	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1m 40.666s	0.475s	26
7	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	1m 40.927s	0.736s	20
8	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1m 40.958s	0.767s	33
9	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1m 40.981s	0.790s	29
10	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1m 41.034s	0.843s	24
11	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	1m 41.086s	0.895s	21
12	Rene Binder	Trident	1m 41.097s	0.906s	25
13	Robert Visoiu	Rapax	1m 41.128s	0.937s	27
14	Norman Nato	Arden International	1m 41.183s	0.992s	32
15	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1m 41.227s	1.036s	22
16	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1m 41.341s	1.150s	21
17	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1m 41.352s	1.161s	22
18	Mitchell Evans	RUSSIAN TIME	1m 41.372s	1.181s	16
19	Zoel Amberg	Lazarus	1m 41.440s	1.249s	35
20	Julian Leal	Carlin	1m 41.497s	1.306s	21
21	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1m 41.606s	1.415s	31
22	Marlon Stockinger	Status Grand Prix	1m 41.669s	1.478s	33
23	Nathanael Berthon	Lazarus	1m 42.467s	2.276s	5
24	Andre Negrao	Arden International	1m 42.509s	2.318s	23
25	Nigel Melker	Hilmer Motorsport	1m 43.631s	3.440s	13
26	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1m 44.181s	3.990s	34