Nyck de Vries ends F2 testing at Barcelona on top

Photo: Glenn Dunbar / FIA F2 Championship

ART Grand Prix’s Nyck de Vries set the fastest time on the final day of Formula 2’s pre-season testing at Barcelona.

The Dutchman has topped four of the six test days, split evenly between Jerez and Barcelona, and led the final day’s running by 0.239 seconds from Virtuosi Racing’s Luca Ghiotto.

De Vries wasn’t mistake free though, spinning at Turn 2 after setting the morning benchmark and causing the session to be red flagged. Nobody beat him afterwards, with Carlin’s Louis Deletraz and Virtuosi’s Guan Yu Zhou occupying third and fourth place.

Although testing should not be an absolute barometer of pace, the fact that the second Carlin and ART cars of Nobuharu Matsushita and Nikita Mazepin were just behind suggests that the quickest teams from last year will be the ones to beat again.

Teams focused on long runs in the afternoon, but this didn’t stop some drivers wanting to top the times, and it was Sauber Junior Team by Charouz’s Juan Manuel Correa who was triumphant, ahead of Campos Racing’s Roberto Merhi and Arden’s Tatiana Calderon.

With so few joining them in that strategy, it meant there was a two second gap between third and fourth, with fifth placed man Richard Verschoor the only other driver to be within three seconds of the afternoon pace.

GP3 graduate Verschoor replaced IndyCar driver Jordan King at MP Motorsport, but his inexperience meant that although he was quick in the afternoon, he was only 18th fastest in the combined classification.

Combined day three times