Stenshorne starts F2 pre-season testing on top at Barcelona

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne was quickest on Formula 2’s first morning of pre-season testing at Barcelona.

Cool temperatures meant only installation laps were completed early on, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett the last to log on 63 minutes into the three-hour run time.

MP Motorsport’s duo headed back out 20 minutes after that, and traded first place as they racked up laps. Oliver Goethe set a 1m26.040s to lead team-mate Gabriele Mini by 0.146 seconds before the pair pitted.

Hitech GP and Prema sent their drivers out with 79 minutes to go, and Invicta Racing’s Joshua Duerksen was on track too. DAMS and Rodin soon joined in starting their first runs, and Duerksen posted a 1m27.420s with 71 minutes remaining to occupy third place.

He lost that two minutes later to Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata who set a 1m26.802s, with team-mate Colton Herta in sixth behind Prema’s Sebastian Montoya. More than half of the field had now recorded laptimes, and Duerksen improved but was 0.043s slower than Miyata.

A few moments later, Stenshorne’s first flying lap came in and he bettered Miyata by 0.077s. Rodin team-mate Alex Dunne then took over third, lapping 0.51s off Goethe’s benchmark.

Prema’s Mari Boya was next to be third, beating Dunne by 0.031s with a 1m26.519s set with 66 minutes to go. Miyata swiftly went 0.003s faster than Boya, and when Stenshorne and Dunne crossed the line they returned to third and fourth. Stenshorne got within 0.146s of Goethe, and was 0.027s ahead of Dunne.

ART Grand Prix’s drivers’ first laptimes came in then, and at the end of hour two Trident and AIX Racing’s line-ups finally did the same.

DAMS’ Dino Beganovic set a 1m26.420s to rise from eighth to fifth, then with 58 minutes remaining Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov stopped at turn three and triggered a seven-minute red flag period.

When action resumed, Tsolov, team-mate Noel Leon and Invicta’s Rafael Camara headed out as they were yet to put times on the board.

With 41 minutes to go, Leon went fifth fastest with a 1m26.343s and Tsolov slotted into ninth as most drivers who had left the pitlane returned to it.

The next runs began with 26 minutes left on the session clock, and Mini bettered Goethe’s long-standing benchmark by 0.438s. Tsolov got within 0.1s of him, and Leon improved to 1m26.190s in fourth.

Goethe set a new personal best with 19 minutes remaining, but his 1m25.829s soon left him fourth as Leon beat him by 0.014s with his next lap.

Beganovic returned to fifth place five minutes from the end, lapping sub-1m26s, but was down to sixth when Stenshorne crossed the line in 1m25.437s to go quickest by 0.165s.

Dunne lapped 0.015s shy of that with two minutes left of the session, securing Rodin a one-two and demoting Tsolov and Leon to fourth and fifth.

Six drivers were on track at the chequered flag, a second covered the top seven and AIX’s Cian Sheilds ended the morning without a representative laptime.

Additional reporting by Jacob Awcock

Morning session results