Nyck De Vries has set the pace on the final day of the FIA Formula 2 test at the Bahrain International Circuit, grabbing the top spot in both sessions as he denied his rivals twice over, with a time of 1:40.583, just seven thousands ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Oliver Rowland, in the morning session, and with an afternoon time of 1:41.880, ahead of Rapax teammate Johnny Cecotto and Norman Nato.

The morning session opened under overcast conditions and slightly cooler temperatures than seen for the last two days, with De Vries clearly enjoying the elements as he set the early pace. The PREMA pair of Charles Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco soon took over on top, with the Italian the first to drop below 1:41.

At the one hour mark yesterday’s quickest driver Nicholas Latifi grabbed the top spot, but teammate Oliver Rowland had his eye on the prize: the Briton dethroned the Canadian by just eight hundredths, with Matsushita soon splitting the DAMS pair, indicating the fine margins between the teams, but with just over a half an hour remaining De Vries stole past them all, grabbing P1 by just 0.007s.

Following a one hour break the pitlane was green again, with de Vries the first man on track as he looked to resume hostilities. Artem Markelov topped the timesheets in the opening stages before the Pertamina Arden of Sean Gelael and Nato took over, but on the one hour mark Cecotto went top, ahead of De Vries and Nato.

The Dutchman bided his time before striking in the final hour, again grabbing the top spot with Nato closing in to P2, but Cecotto reclaimed the position just before the chequered flag to hand his Rapax team a 1-2 in the final session before the opening round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, to be run in Bahrain in just 2 weeks’ time, on 14-16 April.

Day 3 Morning results

Day 3 Afternoon results

Charles Leclerc has set the bar for the second FIA Formula 2 pre-season test by topping the timesheets this morning at the Bahrain International Circuit: the PREMA Racing man’s best laptime remained unchallenged in a dry/wet/dry afternoon session. 

The session opened to the expected warm temperatures, with all drivers making use of their first set of medium Pirelli compounds as they ran through the usual installation routines, running in and out of the pitlane a number of times as the teams studied the data. Jordan King was the only driver to set a laptime for the first third of the session, with Sergio Sette Camara taking over on the timesheets at the halfway mark.

Soon after the pace started to pick up, and the PREMA pairing of Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco were the first drivers to set competitive times, with the Monegasque driver setting the target with what would ultimately be the top time of the morning session. With an hour remaining King improved to split the teammates and grab P2, with Nobuharu Matsushita improving to 3rd shortly after.

In the closing stages of the session the pace improved all along the pitlane, with Luca Ghiotto grabbing P3 with 30 minutes remaining, but as the chequered flag dropped no one was able to beat Leclerc’s time: the top 12 drivers were within a second of his best lap.

Following a two hour break, the pitlane went green under grey skies with King the early pace-setter, but twenty minutes into the session the rain started to fall over the track. Another twenty minutes later, it intensified sending all cars back into the pits.

After the rain had stopped, Nyck De Vries was the first man back out and on wet tyres. With one hour left on the clock, the slicks were back along with the sun. In the final thirty minutes, the Rapax pair of De Vries and Johnny Cecotto took control of the timesheets, the Dutchman ahead of the Venezuelan. Ghiotto also put his head down and edged out De Vries. With ten minutes remaining in the session, the proceedings were halted after Artem Markelov stopped at Turn 8.

The pitlane went live again with all cars rushing to get the most out of the final three minutes. As the chequered flag dropped, Matsushita lit all three sectors in purple to go top. Delétraz also put together a strong lap and improved in all sectors, but not enough to steal the Japanese’s thunder.

After the dust settled, it was found that Fuoco, Matsushita, Delétraz, Cecotto and Sergio Canamasas had failed to respect a red flag prompted after Boschung had a technical issue on track. The best laptimes of the culprits were deleted hence promoting Ghiotto, King and de Vries to the top 3.

Tomorrow’s session will open at 9am local time.

Day 1 Morning results

Day 1 Afternoon results

Nicholas Latifi has topped day two by setting the pace in this morning’s test session at the Bahrain International Circuit, stopping the clock at 1:40.541 in the second half of the session to top the timesheets ahead of RUSSIAN TIME teammates Luca Ghiotto and Artem Markelov, while the afternoon was given over to race simulations, with Nyck De Vries topping the timesheets on 1:41.212 ahead of Gustav Malja and Charles Leclerc.

The day opened to gloriously sunny conditions, with the drivers heading out on their medium Pirelli compounds as soon as the lights went green. Johnny Cecotto set the early pace, stopping the clock at 1:41.371, four tenths faster than teammate Nyck de Vries. After a brief red flag Markelov hit his pace, but Ghiotto was the first man to break the 1:41 barrier, followed soon after by Leclerc and Norman Nato.

Just after the halfway mark Latifi grabbed P1 with his blistering lap on soft tyres, a tenth quicker than Ghiotto, and his rivals were unable to challenge. In the final hour a number of drivers tried different set ups to grab the top spot, but to no avail: Latifi owned the morning session when the chequered flag was shown.

Following a two hour break, the action resumed with the field mainly focusing on race simulations and pitstop practices. Sergio Sette Camara set the pace until Cecotto improved on the Brazilian’s laptime to go P1.

With one hour left in the day, Camara reclaimed the top spot dipping under 1m42, before Malja also found some extra pace to move up to P2. Fifteen minutes later, de Vries blew past them all with a time good enough to be the afternoon’s fastest man.

After the chequered flag, Camara’s car was found underweight. Therefore, the MP Motorsport driver had all times deleted from the results, promoting Leclerc to the top 3 finish.

Day 3 will start tomorrow at 9.00 local time.

Day 2 Morning results

Day 2 Afternoon results

The second pre-season test of the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship kicks off tomorrow, with another three day session taking place this time out at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. The teams and drivers will look to improve their cars from Wednesday 29^th to Friday 31^st

March at the circuit which will see the racing debut of the new championship in just a few weeks’ time, on April 14^th at the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

This test follows on from the first FIA Formula 2 session held earlier this month at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain which saw the teams put their drivers and cars through their paces ahead for the first time this year. The teams were blessed with good weather throughout the 3 days, which saw Johnny Cecotto grab the honours on the first morning with a last lap push ahead of Oliver Rowland and Nobuharu Matsushita, with the Japanese driver flying to the top spot in the afternoon, ahead of ART teammate Alexander Albon and Norman Nato.

Albon took the honours for day two, from Cecotto and Artem Markelov, as the teams worked on qualifying set ups, while the afternoon was set aside for race simulations, with Nyck De Vries topping the session for Rapax ahead of the PREMA pairing of Antonio Fuoco and Charles Leclerc. Day three saw more of the same, with Nato topping the qualifying style morning session with the top time of the 3 days on 1:27.834, ahead of Rowland and Albon, with Luca Ghiotto taking the honours in the final session, ahead of Rapax teammates Cecotto and De Vries.

The Bahrain test sees just one driver change, with South African Raoul Hyman stepping up with Campos Racing to get behind the wheel of car #12. As usual, Pirelli have selected two different compounds for these three days, this time utilising the Medium (Prime) and Soft (Option) tyres. Each driver will be supplied with five sets of Prime and two sets of Option.

The sessions will start each day at 09:00 local time and run until 12:00: on Monday and Tuesday the afternoon session will run from 14:00 to 17:00, while on Wednesday this will be pushed forward an hour to 13:00 before closing at 16:00.

FIA Formula 2 Championship – Bahrain Test Session: Drivers’ Entry List