Bearman fastest as F2 rookies lead the way in Baku practice

Photo: Prema

Ollie Bearman led fellow rookie Isack Hadjar as they made their debuts around the Baku street circuit in Formula 2 practice.

Driving for a Hitech team that has been strong around Baku in recent seasons – claiming the last two pole positions with Liam Lawson and Juri Vips – Hadjar took several turns on top of the times during the 45-minute session.

For a while he was the only driver to get into the 1m54s before the Prema pair of Frederik Vesti and then Bearman went to the top with around eight minutes remaining.

Hadjar reclaimed the best time with three minutes left on the clock, only for Bearman to respond immediately with a time 1m54.063s.

Another Baku debutant, Kush Maini, took third place just before the session was red-flagged inside the final minute following a spin for Arthur Leclerc.

Vesti ended up fourth, his time matched by Ralph Boschung, with Theo Pourchaire taking sixth.

Richard Verschoor was a frontrunner for much of the session but ended up seventh, ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi, championship leader Ayumu Iwasa, and Jehan Daruvala.

Roman Stanek and Leclerc were the last drivers to lap below 1m55s and rounded out the top 12. Several of the championship’s leading contenders were behind that, with Jack Doohan in 13th ahead of Jak Crawford, Dennis Hauger, Zane Maloney – who caused a yellow flag with an overshoot in Turn 3 – and Victor Martins.

Free practice results