ART GP’s Victor Martins quickest in first F2 test session of 2025

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins was quickest in the first session of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

It was an underwhelming start to the day, as the three-hour session was delayed by 45 minutes and then shorted by 15 minutes. Once it began, six drivers headed out.

After eight minutes, red flags waved as Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne struck mechanical trouble and had to be towed back. The track remained empty once green flags waved again, and eventually two or three drivers headed out at a time.

Only installation laps were done until 61 minutees had passed, when Trident’s Max Esterson set a 1m45.966s. He improved to 1m29.252s, which MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor bettered with a 1m28.721s.

The pace was then lowered to 1m27.34s, and after 70 minutes Trident’s Sami Meguetounif was his closest rival after posting a 1m27.904s laptime.

Verhscoor’s team-mate Oliver Goethe set a 1m27.466s a few minutes later, before Meguetounif reclaimed second by getting within 0.117 seconds of Verschoor.

Six drivers had done timed laps after 75 minutes, and soon a new 1m27.189s benchmark was laid down by Goethe.

That was beaten by a 1m27.007s from Dunne less than two minutes later, as the timesheet grew to showing nine drivers.

Dunne improved to 1m26.897s as the session’s second half began, and Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek jumped to fifth with a 1m27.523s. Esterson set a new personal best in sixth, ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett and Rafael Villagomez. Now more than half of the field had completed a full lap of the track.

Stanek set a 1m26.734s to go top 86 minutes in, Esterson found more pace but remained in sixth and ART GP’s drivers began their first proper run. Victor Martins’ went fourth fastest with his first flying lap, a 1m27.218s, as Invicta’s Leonardo Fornaroli made pace gains on successive laps in seventh.

Ritomo Miyata and team-mate Martins got within 0.037s and 0.088s of Stanek at the 95-minute mark, and on his next effort Martins went fastest by 0.431s.

Five minutes later he was second, sandwiched between Prema’s drivers who had just begun their first run. A 1m26.227s put Gabriele Mini on top by 0.076s, and Sebastian Montoya made use of a clear track to go third fastest.

Goethe lapped just 0.05s slower than Mini two hours into the session, and 25 minutes after that there were still five drivers without laptimes to their name. One of those was Rodin’s Christian Mansell, who was stuck in the pits with mechanical issues.

Hitech GP finally sent out its drivers for a run with 20 minutes to go, and both Campos Racing drivers finally got times on the board with 10 minutes remaining. Between those two points, Martins returned to the track and posted a 1m25.790s to go fastest by a sizeable 0.437s.

Stanek made a small improvement in fifth and Dunne set a 1m26.542s to climb to sixth after that, while Luke Browning (Hitech) and Arvid Lindblad (Campos) got up to eighth and ninth by lapping sub-1m27s.

Morning session results