Alex Dunne denies Arvid Lindblad top spot at Imola in F2 practice

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne narrowly beat Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad to first place in Formula 2 practice at Imola.

Early on it was Prema’s Gabriele Mini who was the driver to beat, setting a 1m30.416s to sit 0.007 seconds ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins.

AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen lowered the pace to 1m29.602s, pipping Prema’s Sebastian Montoya by 0.088s, then after a flurry of improvements Lindblad emerged at the top with a 1m29.031s lap. Mini set a new personal best to return to second, but was over 0.3s slower than Lindblad.

When Lindblad then broke into the 1m28s, Mini responded with a 1m28.526s lap that put him 0.218s ahead. Soon it was Dunne who was his closest rival, just 0.029s behind.

Mini soon became the driver trailing by 0.027s as Martins went to the top, and although he later improved by 0.011s the Frenchman found himself shuffled down to second as Hitech GP’s Luke Browning moved ahead with a 1m29.461s.

Later into the session another new name appeared at the top, as DAMS’ Kush Maini set a 1m28.022s to comfortably go fastest. Campos sent its drivers back out and Lindblad got within 0.335s of the new benchmark time while Pepe Marti slotted into eighth, then on their next efforts Lindblad beat Maini and Marti jumped to third.

Another minor gain from Martins kept him in fourth, 0.382s off the pace, and a few minutes from the end Dunne set a 1m27.907s to beat Lindblad by 0.009s.

Browning ended up in sixth, 0.554s off the pace and just ahead of Trident’s Sami Meguetounif.

A second covered the top 20, with less than 0.1s splitting 14th and 20th place. In that pack of drivers was MP Motorsport’s points leader Richard Verschoor, who was only 16th fastest.

Free practice results