Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Virtuosi Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto was fastest in the afternoon on day one of Formula 2’s in-season test at Barcelona, which ended early due to rain.
Campos Racing and Trident were the first two teams to set flying laps, with Isack Hadjar fastest early on. Richard Verschoor soon lowered the pace, but his laptime was still far from the benchmark set in the morning session.
Hitech GP’s Paul Aron rose to the top during hour two of three, with MP Motorsport’s drivers at this point yet to set a laptime. Dennis Hauger had left the pits several times but returned to it before crossing the start-finish line, whereas Franco Colapinto had not even left the team’s garage.
Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli caused the first red flag period of the afternoon 75 minutes in, as the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior went at turn nine. He avoided significant damaging his car, which was retrieved by marshals so he could return to the track later in the session.
Green flags waved again with over one hour-and-a-half left on the clock, and the MP duo headed out. That left ART Grand Prix’s drivers as the slowest in the field, as they were performing aero test runs.
The next change at the top was when Bortoleto went fastest, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi improving to second place.
Aron returned to the top in the last hour of running, but then got shuffled back down the order as he was unable to break into the 1m25s.
DAMS’ Jak Crawford was the first driver to fit the soft compound tyres and consequently lowered the pace to 1m25.182s. Red flags appeared again with half an hour to go as the car of ART GP’s Zak O’Sullivan had to be rescued in the second sector.
More drivers headed out on soft tyres when the action resumed. Bortoleto, who was already out when the session was stopped, beat Crawford’s benchmark by 0.039 seconds.
His team-mate Kush Maini and ART GP’s Victor Martins meanwhile returned to the pitlane without completing a push lap as it started to rain. The rainfall intensified, and it led to the track being empty for the final 10 minutes rather than drivers setting late flying laps.
Afternoon session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gaps | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Virtuosi Racing | 1m25.143s | 30 | |
| 2 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 1m25.182s | +0.039s | 25 |
| 3 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m25.744s | +0.601s | 32 |
| 4 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m25.756s | +0.613s | 37 |
| 5 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | 1m26.032s | +0.889s | 43 |
| 6 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | 1m26.325s | +1.172s | 30 |
| 7 | Isack Hadjar | Campos Racing | 1m26.361s | +1.218s | 38 |
| 8 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m26.396s | +1.253s | 33 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 1m26.413s | +1.270s | 30 |
| 10 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | 1m26.433s | +1.290s | 25 |
| 11 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | 1m26.652s | +1.509s | 29 |
| 12 | Joshua Duerksen | PHM Racing | 1m26.699s | +1.556s | 24 |
| 13 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | 1m26.806s | +1.663s | 40 |
| 14 | Kush Maini | Virtuosi Racing | 1m26.819s | +1.676s | 25 |
| 15 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m26.847s | +1.704s | 33 |
| 16 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | 1m26.862s | +1.719s | 35 |
| 17 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 1m26.955s | +1.812s | 40 |
| 18 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 1m27.008s | +1.865s | 37 |
| 19 | Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | 1m27.112s | +1.969s | 38 |
| 20 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | 1m27.226s | +2.083s | 20 |
| 21 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin Motorsport | 1m27.615s | +2.472s | 23 |
| 22 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | 1m27.926s | +2.783s | 24 |