Prema’s Mini edges ART GP’s Miyata on second morning of F2 test

Photo: Prema

Gabriele Mini was quickest for Prema on the second morning of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

DAMS’ Jak Crawford set the first representative laptime seven minutes in, a 1m27.733s, at which point 11 drivers had recorded timed laps.

Two minutes later Hitech GP’s Dino Beganovic lowered the pace to 1m27.426s, and Rodin Motorsport’s Christian Mansell set a 1m27.763s to hold third before Hitech’s Luke Browning laid down a new 1m26.981s benchmark.

After 10 minutes, Crawford got within 0.361s of Browning and team-mate Kush Maini improved to 1m27.501s in fourth.

MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor was the next driver to top the times, setting a 1m26.809s, and Mansell then got within 0.125s of him. Verschoor’s team-mate Oliver Goethe demoted him to second on his next lap, going 0.259s faster, before Beganovic returned to first place by 0.019s.

Verschoor responded with a 1m26.304s, moving back ahead by 0.227s, and Browning was 0.524s slower than him as he moved back up to fourth.

Red flags waved 22 minutes as Trident’s Max Esterson went around at the opening corners, and after action resumed Mini used a set of old soft tyres to set a 1m25.306s and go almost a second faster than anyone else.

Crawford trimmed his gap to 0.621s, and Trident’s Sami Meguetounif set a 1m26.158s to sit third after 35 minutes. Soon there was more changed at the top, as Dunne pipped Mini by 0.115s. Maini improved to 1m26.064s and fourth place, then three successive personal bests brought Mansell up to third as he got within 0.128s of his team-mate.

Verschoor was able to respond again, bringing the pace down to 1m24.565s after 39 minutes. Goethe made it an MP one-two by lapping within 0.329s of him a minute later.

Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad became the 20th driver to record a laptime three quarters of an hour in, with only Invicta Racing’s drivers yet to get proper mileage in at that point.

Mini was back on track and he put together a 1m23.709s lap to smash an existing benchmark once more. Nobody was able to respond to that as Campos’s Pepe Marti caused red flags on his outlap, and after hour one of three there was 0.856s between first and second place.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins made use of new soft tyres to get within 0.456s of Mini’s pace, and Meguetounif trailed by 0.822s in third after 66 minutes of track action. Dunne then cut another 0.086s off the gap at the top, as several other drivers improved in the top 10.

The second driver to break into the 1m23s was AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen, who got within 0.262s of Mini. Four minutes later Lindblad got into third, setting a 1m24.021s, and there was more change approaching the session’s halfway mark. Browning set a 1m23.989s to go third fastest, Mini improved to 1m23.660s and Lindblad caused red flags when he truck trouble at turn six.

There was a flurry of improvements one hour-and-41 minutes in, as ART GP’s Ritomo Miyata came just 0.07s shy of Mini’s benchmark, Browning was 0.21s off it in third and Martins trailed by 0.301s in fourth.

Invcita’s Roman Stanek finally put a laptime next to his name with 53 minutes to go, shortly before team-mate Leonardo Fornaroli caused red flags. The track was green very briefly before Crawford instigated by another stoppage, and finally Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett had an incident that brought out session-ending red flags.

Morning session results