Jehan Daruvala went fastest in post-season testing for the second day in a row with Carlin, beating out PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman by 0.167s.

Daruvala’s Carlin teammate for the week Dan Ticktum was another familiar name at the front in Sakhir, finishing third overall.

MORNING

ART Grand Prix were the first out onto the track for fast laps on a warm and windy morning at Sakhir, with their new pairing of Christian Lundgaard and Théo Pourchaire topping the timesheets before switching the focus to longer runs.

Ralph Boschung has already been announced with Campos Racing for 2021 and took the Spanish side to the top of the charts shortly after the hour mark, lapping at 1:42.244, just 0.027s ahead of Tuesday’s fastest man Daruvala.

Hitech’s all Red Bull junior team line-up impressed on Day 2, with Liam Lawson lapping less than a tenth off the quickest time for P3 in the morning session, three tenths ahead of Jüri Vips.

It was heads down for most of the grid, with a large focus on gathering data. Felipe Drugovich, Ticktum and Marino Sato all posted more than 40 laps, finishing sixth, eighth and tenth respectively. UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou clocked in the most runs of the morning, lapping 53 times, but finished down in 20th.

Marcus Armstrong was just seven tenths off the quickest time with DAMS, taking P7, two places ahead of his teammate Roy Nissany in ninth.

AFTERNOON

Robert Shwartzman and Oscar Piastri returned from the break with a fresh set of Pirelli boots and wasted no time in leaping from the bottom of the timesheets to the top, setting the afternoon standard at 1:43.835.

Drugovich was looking more and more comfortable with UNI-Virtuosi, going five tenths quicker than the PREMA pair to steal P1 for a period, though the Brazilian would end the afternoon in sixth.

Drugovich was looking more and more comfortable with UNI-Virtuosi, going five tenths quicker than the PREMA pair to steal P1 for a period, though the Brazilian would end the afternoon in sixth.

The quickest pairing on Day 1 then returned to the top of the order with 90 minutes to go in the second session, Daruvala once again leading Ticktum with both of them touring faster than the morning’s quickest man Boschung.

There were two stoppages with half an hour to go when Matteo Nannini halted at Turn 8 in the HWA machine, before Pourchaire span into the barriers at the same corner.

Shwartzman surged to P1 with 20 minutes to go but couldn’t quite do enough to keep himself there as a late lap from Daruvala stole the top spot by 0.167s. Meanwhile, the Red Bull junior’s teammate Ticktum crept into third.

Lawson finished as the fastest rookie with Hitech, four tenths off the pace in fourth, ahead of Armstrong at DAMS. Louis Delétraz enjoyed a productive second day at MP Motorsport, going seventh fastest ahead of Charouz pairing David Beckmann and Guilherme Samaia.

F3 graduate Clément Novalak completed the top ten with Trident.We’ll be back for Day 3 on Thursday at 9.00am (local time).