Verschoor edges Martins to top spot on second afternoon of F2 testing

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Richard Verschoor topped the times on the second afternoon of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Bahrain.

Verschoor was quickest when the first flying laps came in, setting a 1m45.366s to go almost half a second clear of Trident’s Roman Stanek.

His VAR team-mate Juan Manuel Correa then became his closest rival after 11 minutes, with Stanek shuffled down to fourth behind Prema’s morning pacesetter Frederik Vesti who then improved at the end of the first half-hour to get within 0.08 seconds of Verschoor.

Prema’s Ollie Bearman completed the top five, which went unchanged until 50 minutes had passed, when Rodin Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi went fastest by 0.077s.

A few minutes after Fittipaldi went to the top, his team-mate Zane Maloney moved into fifth place, and then Fittipaldi improved again to extend his advantage at the top.

During the first hour, there had been a red flag period during which ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire was unable to make it back to the pits.

PHM Racing by Charouz’s Roy Nissany improved twice to go fourth fastest early in the second hour of track action, then Pourchaire’s team-mate Victor Martins lowered the pace by several seconds with a 1m43.452s lap.

He found even more pace, setting a 1m42.679s, and still had a gap of 2.21s at the top of the timesheet when Vesti set a 1m44.889s lap to go second fastest ahead of DAMS’ Arthur Leclerc as the field headed into their final hour of testing for the day.

Nissany went over 1.4s faster than Vesti a minute later, but was still 0.724s off Martins, and his team-mate Brad Benavides was soon in third place and a further 0.438s behind.

MP Motorsport pair Dennis Hauger and Jehan Daruvala became the first driver to join Martins in lapping sub-1m43s, and they sat in second and third for 15 minutes before DAMS’ drivers also found a burst of pace.

Leclerc went fastest, bettering Martins by 0.242s, and team-mate Ayumu Iwasa slotted into third place, 0.303s off the pace.

There was another change at the top going into the final half-hour, with Verschoor returning to first place and Martins also improving to move past Leclerc and remain in second place by lapping just 0.008s slower than the new benchmark.

The pair were not challenged at the top thereon, helped somewhat by a late red flag stoppage which claimed Benavides, but there was lots of drivers in contention to fill the places just behind.

Jack Doohan and Bearman went fourth and fifth, then Ralph Boschung bettered both as Trident’s Clement Novalak finally left the pits for the first time with 20 minutes to go.

Hauger went 0238s slower than Verschoor to move up to third before the stoppage, and nobody was able to improve in the four minutes left when the track went green again.

Afternoon session results