Mini leads Leon in F2’s Melbourne practice as Herta crashes

Photo: James Sutton

MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Mini was quickest in the first practice session of the Formula 2 season in Melbourne.

The first laptime in the 45-minute session was laid down by DAMS’ Dino Beganovic seven minutes in, and once he lapped at a more representative pace he was soon beaten by Prema’s Sebastian Montoya who set a 1m33.093s.

Invicta Racing’s Joshua Duerksen lowered the pace to 1m31.939s, leading Prema’s Mari Boya by 0.583 seconds. Approaching the 11-minute mark, ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak jumped to third with a 1m32.877s.

Beganovic reclaimed top spot by setting a 1m31.505s, and Montoya improved to third with a 1m32.010s before Campos Racing’s Noel Leon bettered him by becoming the third driver to lap sub-1m32s. Soon his team-mate Nikola Tsolov and Hitech GP’s Ritomo Miyata did too, sandwiching Duerksen who responded with a 1m30.966s that put him clear at the top by a huge margin.

Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen went third fastest at the same time, 0.089s behind Beganovic. They were both demoted a place when ART GP’s Kush Maini next crossed the line as he set a 1m31.226s to slash Duerksen’s advantage to 0.26s. John Bennett, van Hoepen’s team-mate, became the fifth driver to break the 1m32s barrier and moved ahead of Tsolov.

Many drivers improved on their next laps 16 minutes in. Montoya initially held fourth with a 1m31.670s, Leon went quickest by 0.422s, Mini then bettered him by 0.009s then Tsolov posted a 1m30.178s to be 0.357s faster than anyone else. Miyata’s new personal best, a 1m30.992s put him into fifth and Invicta’s Rafael Camara set a personal best in sixth, with van Hoepen now 10th.

Before the previous pace-setters got a change to improve, red flags waved as Hitech’s Colton Herta crashed out exiting turn 10.

The stoppage went on for almost eight minutes in, and the next changes to the order of the top 10 came approaching the half-hour point. MP’s Oliver Goethe set a 1m30.831s, which initially put him fourth but soon left him sixth as Mini lowered the pace to 1m30.161s while Beganovic and then Inthraphuvasak held fourth with a 1m30.6s laps.

Boya was next to improve a few minutes later, and Rodin sent its drivers out on a run that led to Alex Dunne and Martinius Stenshorne clotting into third and fourth with closely matched laptimes in the 1m30.2s.

Leon responded to Mini’s pace with a 1m30.143s, but 18s later Mini became the first driver to lap sub-1m30s and he had a 0.63s gap to Beganovic who moved up to second.

With 11 minutes to go, Beganovic was shuffled down to sixth due to improvements from Tsolov, Camara, Duerksen and Inthraphuvasak. The first three of those lapped in the 1m29s, with Tsolov getting within 0.175s of the new benchmark.

A minute later, Leon lapped 0.052s shy of Mini, as Rodin’s pair improved again in fourth and fifth to make a top five split by a third of a second.

After a cooldown lap, Mini punched in a 1m29.137s, and Camara set a 1m29.564s to snatch third before session-ending red flags waved with eight minutes remaining after Inthraphuvasak went off at turn 11 and Mini stopped at the pit entry.

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