MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor continued his impressive start to life in Formula 2, setting the fastest time of testing so far with a lap of 1:28.280, to put himself at the top of the leaderboard on Day 2 in Barcelona.
The Dutchman was one of the surprise packages of Round 1 with MP, finishing fifth in the second Sprint Race and fourth in the Feature, and has continued in the same vein in the second test of the year, following up yesterday’s top 10 finish with P1.
Ralph Boschung went second fastest with Campos Racing, 0.194s off the leading pace, ahead of UNI-Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich.
MORNING
Starting the day under the sizzling Spanish sun, the morning of Day 2 felt like an opportune time for Qualifying simulations.
Sticking on fresh hard tyres, the field initially headed out to get a feel of the circuit, with MP’s Lirim Zendeli setting the early pace at 1:29.440, before being bumped down the order by Boschung, lapping just over two tenths quicker.
The majority of the field switched to medium tyres at around 10.30am, but their runs were briefly halted by a Red Flag after Roy Nissany spun at Turn 3 and found himself stuck in the gravel. Despite the spin, the DAMS still managed the sixth fastest time of the morning.
When the session resumed, Drugovich went top with the first sub 1m 29s time of the test. DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong dove into second shortly after and was backed up ART Grand Prix’s Théo Pourchaire. As more qualifying runs came in, the duo slid down the order and finished fourth and seventh.
Wearing fresh mediums, the second MP of Verschoor jumped to first, beating Drugovich’s time by 0.246s with a lap of 1:28.280. Before the session was up, Boschung nipped between the two to steal second, 0.194s off the leading time.
Bent Viscaal is bidding to earn a second round with Trident in Monaco and did his chances no harm with the fifth fastest time. Zendeli finished the morning in eighth, ahead of Day 1’s quickest driver, Christian Lundgaard. Liam Lawson completed the top 10 with Hitech Grand Prix.
AFTERNOON
Gianluca Petecof got things back underway in the afternoon, taking Campos to the top of the timesheet with a tour of 1:30.684 in the early stages.After a qualifying simulation in the morning, the afternoon was much more focused on longer runs and data gathering, with Drugovich heading into second, 0.153s behind Petecof, and HWA RACELAB’s Matteo Nannini in third.
There were three disruptions in the second session of the day, with Alessio Deledda spinning at Turns 12 and 1, while Robert Shwartzman stopped at Turn 3. The Russian was able to get back out there with PREMA, finishing 10th.
Charouz Racing System pairing David Beckmann and Guilherme Samaia went first and second when things got restarted, with times of 1:29.384 and 1:29.510.Zendeli followed up a positive morning’s work with another strong showing in the afternoon, diving into sixth between Drugovich and Nannini.
Lundgaard was eighth fastest in the afternoon with ART Grand Prix, ahead of Boschung.The final day of testing will commence on Sunday at 9am local time.
