Hadjar fastest, Maloney’s car sets on fire on last morning of F2 test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Isack Hadjar was fastest on the final morning of Formula 2 post-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit, which was interrupted by Zane Maloney’s car setting on fire.

MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto was the first driver to set a flying lap three-and-a-half minutes into the three-hour session, but his 1m53.838s effort kept him on top for less than two minutes before DAMS’ Juan Manuel Correa posted a 1m47.527s then improved to 1m37.185s on his next lap.

His team-mate Jak Crawford was next to the top, lowering the pace to 1m36.551s with two successive improvements.

Colapinto returned to first place 10 minutes later, setting a 1m36.461s. That stood as the benchmark laptime for 16 minutes before Campos Racing’s Hadjar posted a 1m36.180s. He would remain on top for the rest of the morning, and nobody had an opportunity to beat him in the rest of the session’s first hour as Maloney’s Rodin Carlin-run car setting on fire at turn 13 led to a red flag period lasting almost 20 minutes.

Once action resumed, Hadjar improved to 1m36.066s early in the second hour, had a cooldown lap then improved again to 1m35.958s before the session was stopped for another nine minutes due to Hitech GP’s Paul Aron stopping at turn five.

Following the next restart ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins got himself into second place, just 0.09 seconds off Hadjar’s pace, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi was 0.116s off the top in third. Crawford and Virtuosi Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top five.

There was a third red flag interruption with 23 minutes to go due to an “impact at turn 11” for Trident’s Christian Mansell, who had taken over the car driven by Richard Verschoor on the first two days of testing, and when the session restarted there was 11 minutes left on the clock.

Although many did head back out on track, there were scant improvements. Virtuosi’s Kush Maini jumped from 13th to fifth with a laptime 0.297s slower than Hadjar’s long-standing benchmark, and Trident’s Oliver Goethe set the fastest middle sector of anyone but then did not improve his laptime so remained in 21st place.

In total 12 laptimes by eight drivers were deleted for track limits abuse.

Morning session results