Pourchaire leads F2 field on day one of pre-season testing at Bahrain

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire ended the first day of Formula 2 pre-season testing as the fastest driver, topping both Tuesday sessions at Bahrain.

He was fastest by 0.128 seconds over Van Amersfoort Racing’s Richard Verschoor, who set the pace at the start of the afternoon session ahead of Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan and PHM Racing by Charouz’s Roy Nissany.

Verschoor was on top for most of the first 25 minutes of the two-and-a-half hour session before Rodin Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi set a 1m45.661s lap to take over in first place.

He improved to 1m45.124s at the half-hour mark, with Trident’s Roman Stanek and Clement Novalak then taking turns in second place.

Verschoor returned to second after 44 minutes, just 0.049s off Fittipaldi. Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar ventured on track at that point, and went fifth fastest, leaving Prema’s Ollie Bearman as the only driver yet to do a lap.

Juan Manuel Correa put the second of VAR’s cars into third place after 55 minutes, then MP Motorsport pair Dennis Hauger and Jehan Daruvala went on track and lowered the pace into the 1m44s as Bearman headed out for the first time at the end of hour one.

DAMS was the next team to go on a qualifying-focused run, and second place was then disputed by Ayumu Iwasa and Arthur Leclerc behind Hauger at the session’s halfway point.

Daruvala went one hundredth of a second faster than his team-mate a few minutes later to take first place, but Hauger immediately responded and went fastest by 0.331s.

Pourchaire and team-mate Victor Martins were at the very bottom of the timesheet as the session went into its final hour, which was disrupted by a red flag stoppage that appeared to be caused by Prema’s Frederik Vesti.

Drivers were quick to get back on track when the session resumed, and Iwasa and Daruvala both improved in second and third. Pourchaire jumped from 21st from to third with 35 minutes left on the clock, but was later shuffled down to fourth as Daruvala and Hauger massively lowered the pace. Daruvala set a 1m42.766s, and Hauger posted a 1m43.108s while everyone else was still in the 1m44s.

That changed in the final 18 minutes, with Novalak going second then Fittipaldi usurping Daruvala with a 1m42.739s lap.

Martins went from last to 11th with 12 minutes remaining, as Leclerc then Verschoor went fastest. Pourchaire’s session-topping lap came with five minutes to go, while his team-mate dropped down to 19th as others improved.

Afternoon session results