Home Featured F2 test ends with Drugovich top, Boschung and Viscaal hit by car issues

F2 test ends with Drugovich top, Boschung and Viscaal hit by car issues

by Ida Wood

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Virtuosi Racing’s 2021 Formula 2 signing Felipe Drugovich topped the final test session of 2020 at Bahrain, as two cars were ruled out by technical issues.

Campos Racing returnee Ralph Boschung only managed five laps on Wednesday afternoon before problems struck his car, and Trident’s test debutant Bent Viscaal was kept in the garage by a safety concern related to a faulty fuel cell.

Boschung’s team-mate Logan Sargeant was the first to set a lap, and set the early pace with a 1m47.387s lap.

HWA Racelab’s Roberto Merhi, who has raced in Formula 1 and F2 in the past, took over at the top of the times 23 minutes into the three-hour session with a 1m44.983s.

David Beckmann was next to go quickest, for Charouz Racing System, before his team-mate Guilherme Samaia set a 1m43.612s a few minutes later.

Samaia didn’t improve on that lap, as most of the field switched focusing to longer runs rather than qualifying lap simulations, and he remained in first place until the final half-hour of the day’s action.

DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong went top before Drugovich, who didn’t even set a lap until just a few minutes before, beat him with a 1m42.435s lap. There were only a few drivers who got quicker after that, with Prema team-mates Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman vaulting up to second and fourth either side of Armstrong, and Drugovich’s team-mate for the day Clement Novalak becoming the last driver within a second of the pace in fifth place.

Novalak, who spent the first two days of testing with Trident, set a personal best on his very first lap on track and it wasn’t until 32 laps later that he managed to surpass it.

Samaia, Merhi and Beckmann were shuffled down to sixth, eighth and ninth after shining in the first half-hour, and DAMS’ Roy Nissany was seventh with a lap he set in the middle of the session.

Sargeant ended the session in 14th after also failing to improve, leaving him almost five seconds off the pace.

Test results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Felipe Drugovich Virtuosi Racing 1m42.435s 26
2 Oscar Piastri Carlin 1m42.784s +0.349s 33
3 Marcus Armstrong DAMS 1m42.827s +0.392s 25
4 Robert Shwartzman Prema 1m43.268s +0.833s 32
5 Clement Novalak Virtuosi Racing 1m43.411s +0.976s 35
6 Guilherme Samaia Charouz Racing System 1m43.612s +1.177s 41
7 Roy Nissany DAMS 1m43.652s +1.217s 32
8 Roberto Merhi HWA Racelab 1m43.665s +1.230s 29
9 David Beckmann Charouz Racing System 1m43.922s +1.487s 47
10 Matteo Nannini HWA Racelab 1m44.228s +1.793s 28
11 Lirim Zendeli MP Motorsport 1m45.504s +3.069s 38
12 Louis Deletraz MP Motorsport 1m46.787s +4.352s 42
13 Liam Lawson Hitech GP 1m47.218s +4.783s 42
14 Logan Sargeant Campos Racing 1m47.387s +4.952s 53
15 Marino Sato Trident 1m47.527s +5.092s 49
16 Juri Vips Hitech GP 1m47.727s +5.292s 36
17 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 1m47.914s +5.479s 15
18 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix 1m48.074s +5.639s 47
19 Jehan Daruvala Carlin 1m48.236s +5.801s 50
20 Dan Ticktum Carlin 1m48.258s +5.823s 50
21 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing no time 5
22 Bent Viscaal Trident no time 0