Home Featured Boschung on top by two seconds as last day of F2 testing begins

Boschung on top by two seconds as last day of F2 testing begins

by Ida Wood

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung led the way in the first of two Thursday afternoon test sessions for Formula 2 at Bahrain.

The first session of the day was shortened to one hour-and-45 minutes, compared to two-and-a-half hours on previous days, and despite the warm temperatures of the early afternoon there was still a lot of track action.

Boschung was the driver to beat pretty much throughout, laying down a 1m45.063s lap just eight minutes into the session to put him 4.9 seconds clear of Trident’s Clement Novalak in second place.

MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger trimmed that gap down to 4.5s after 11 minutes, then Novalak improved to get within 2.875s of Boschung after a quarter of an hour had passed while Hauger improved in third place.

Boschung lowered the pace by 0.036s after 21 minutes, and soon after DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa and Hauger became the third and fourth drivers to lap sub-1m49s.

The gap between the top two still stood at 2.879s after half an hour, but Novalak improved twice and with a 1m47.031s lap went 2.004s slower than Boschung. PHM Racing by Charouz’s Roy Nissany slotted into third behind him, two tenths slower.

ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire went fourth fastest and broke into the 1m47s at the 40-minute mark, with his team-mate Victor Martins going a tenth slower in fifth place before then setting a 1m47.053s to demote Nissany from third.

Only eight drivers had lapped sub-1m48s as the second half of the session begun, with the gap that covered Boschung and Novalak being larger than the one that covered second place down to 15th.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa went ninth fastest in the final half-hour, then team-mate Richard Verschoor became the 10th driver to lap in the 1m47s when he moved into sixth place with 17 minutes to go at the same time as Nissany improved by a slim 0.008s in fourth.

Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar down in 21st place was the only driver to improve their pace thereon, meaning Boschung ended the session two seconds clear of the field.

Afternoon session results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1m45.027s 28
2 Clement Novalak Trident 1m47.031s +2.004s 23
3 Victor Martins ART GP 1m47.054s +2.027s 39
4 Roy Nissany PHM Racing by Charouz 1m47.223s +2.196s 46
5 Frederik Vesti Prema 1m47.264s +2.237s 34
6 Richard Verschoor VAR 1m47.335s +2.308s 29
7 Theo Pourchaire ART GP 1m47.426s +2.399s 40
8 Jak Crawford Hitech GP 1m47.512s +2.485s 44
9 Jack Doohan Virtuosi 1m47.900s +2.873s 35
10 Juan Manuel Correa VAR 1m47.912s +2.885s 30
11 Roman Stanek Trident 1m48.075s +3.048s 33
12 Ollie Bearman Prema 1m48.145s +3.118s 34
13 Brad Benavides PHM Racing by Charouz 1m48.239s +3.212s 31
14 Ayumu Iwasa DAMS 1m48.387s +3.360s 34
15 Dennis Hauger MP Motorsport 1m48.747s +3.720s 45
16 Arthur Leclerc DAMS 1m48.828s +3.801s 35
17 Jehan Daruvala MP Motorsport 1m48.988s +3.961s 42
18 Amaury Cordeel Virtuosi 1m49.149s +4.122s 27
19 Kush Maini Campos Racing 1m49.245s +4.218s 36
20 Enzo Fittipaldi Carlin 1m49.295s +4.268s 33
21 Isack Hadjar Hitech GP 1m49.557s +4.530s 23
22 Zane Maloney Carlin 1m49.730s +4.703s 38