Formula 2’s latest race winner Jehan Daruvala picked up from where he left off in Sakhir, topping the first day of post-season testing.
The Red Bull junior finished 0.106s faster than his Carlin teammate Dan Ticktum, while Louis Delétraz completed the top three with MP Motorsport.
A handful of drivers managed to get in an install lap before running was brought to a halt by the Bahrain International Circuit so that they could ensure that all the appropriate marshalling and safety support was in place. The session resumed at 1.30pm with a new finishing time of 6.30pm and no break in-between.
Formula 3 title challenger Logan Sargeant was amongst the first to get out and stretch his legs with Campos, setting the initial pace at 1:44.715, before action was paused once more when Matteo Nannini stopped in the gravel at Turn 3.
There were further red flags when David Beckmann and Clément Novalak stopped on track, after Callum Ilott had clambered up the order. The Briton was assisting Charouz on Day 1 and took the time down to 1:43.360 before eventually finishing in sixth.
Daruvala and Delétraz were tussling for second at one point, before the Red Bull junior found some extra pace and leapt ahead of Ilott to become the first driver to dip under 1m 43s.F3 Champion Oscar Piastri found his feet at the two-hour mark, taking PREMA to the top of the table by five tenths.
The PREMA man ended his debut in fifth as the highest placed rookie. There were three further stoppages with Beckmann, Ralph Boschung and Sargeant all coming to a halt on track throughout the afternoon. Daruvala and Delétraz picked up their battle at the top of the timesheets in the final 90 minutes, as the Swiss took first for a period before the Indian broke the 1m 42s barrier.
Daruvala was joined at the top by his Carlin teammate for the day Dan Ticktum. The Briton fired into second and pushed Delétraz down to third.
PREMA’s Robert Shwartzman fired ahead of his teammate in the final hour to take fourth, four tenths off the fastest time. Boschung had set a time fastest enough for P7 before stopping on track, with UNI-Virtuosi pairing Guanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich in eighth and ninth.
ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard completed the top ten.The field will be back for Day 2 on Wednesday at 9.00am (local time).
