MP’s Oliver Goethe quickest on day one of F2 post-season testing

Photo: Red Bull

MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe was quickest on the opening day of Formula 2 post-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit.

In the three-hour morning session, Rodin Motorsport duo Alex Dunne and Martinius Stenshorne were the drivers to beat at first.

Dunne set a 1m40.180s, lowered the benchmark to 1m39.502s and remained unbeaten through the first hour as went even faster to lead ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvask by 0.076s.

On his 12th lap, Goethe posted a 1m38.979s that put him on top and he would not improve on despite doing a further 29 laps. His team-mate Gabriele Mini slotted into third, then was shuffled down to fourth as Invicta Racing’s Joshua Duerksen lapped within 0.332s of Goethe’s pace before the session’s halfway mark.

Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov would later go third fastest, 0.026s off Duerksen, and Mini was demoted to fifth in the final hour by Campos’s Noel Leon who went 0.1s quicker than him.

Duerksen later reduced Goethe’s advantage to 0.177s, and on his final lap Dunne matched that.

Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen and John Bennett ran on medium compound tyres rather than softs and did not post any representative laptimes despite doing more driving than anyone else.

Stenshorne was straight to the top in the afternoon session, and his 1m39.239s benchmark stood until 28 minutes in when Dunne outpaced him. Two laps later Dunne improved afain to 1m39.005s.

Red flags waved after 47 minutes had passed as Hitech GP’s Ritomo Miyata struck trouble. Over two hours remained at the restart, with Miyata in 11th while MP and Trident’s drivers, Prema’s Sebastian Montoya, Invicta’s Rafael Camara and Leon were set to set flying laps.

Leon jumped to fourth when he did put a time on the board, then Camara set the test’s fastest lap — a 1m38.917s. He followed that up with a 1m38.425s, as Dunne improved to be 0.244s behind, and Montoya soon went fourth fastest before Leon reclaimed the position but while 1.149s off the pace.

Montoya took fourth back approaching the session’s halfway mark, bettering Leon by 0.125s, and as the final 90 minutes began Tsolov got within 0.497s of Camara.

Prema’s Mari Boya was next to occupy fourth, 0.74s back, then Inthraphuvasak who trailed Camara by 0.513s and edged his team-mate Kush Maini by 0.121s. Late on that run, Maini cut Camara’s gap to 0.177s.

With 43 minutes to go, Duerksen, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez and Leon improved in fourth, fifth and sixth, and two laps later Duerksen got within 0.129s of Camara.

Leon went fastest by 0.606s in the final half-hour, breaking into the 1m37s but not improving after that and ending the day in seventh.

Duerksen posted a 1m37.307s to beat him by 0.512s with 20 minutes remaining, and Camara got within 0.066s of his team-mate.

A 1m37.290s was Duerksen’s response, but Camara had pace in hand too and moved ahead by 0.021s.

Goethe jumped from 15th to third with 15 minutes to go, 0.293s off Camara, and Mini was a further 0.061s back as he went from 17th to fourth.

After a cooldown lap, Goethe then posted an unbeatable 1m37.203s and Mini got within 0.362s of him in fourth.

Boya and Montoya went fifth and sixth fastest in the last 10 minutes, as most drivers pitted. Trident’s drivers again went without flying laps, while AIX Racing’s drivers failed to improve on their morning pace.

Day 1 results