Hadjar leads a Campos 1-2 as pace quickens on last morning of F2 test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s drivers lowered the pace on the last morning of Formula 2’s in-season testing at Barcelona.

Isack Hadjar was fastest, and beat the pole position time at the track from last year by four tenths of a second.

The session took place with a cloud-covered sky and again very low temperatures. Red flags waved just three minutes in as Hitech GP’s Amaury Cordeel stopped on the run to turn seven with a mechanical issue and had to be towed back to the pits.

The Prema drivers were first to fit new soft compound tyres and Ollie Bearman set a benchmark 1m24.864s laptime. His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli had to abort his flying lap as red flags appeared again due to Trident’s Roman Stanek stopping on track with an engine-related issue.

Action resumed with over two hours remaining in the clock and Antonelli headed out again, this time he was not interrupted and got within 0.1 seconds of Bearman. ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins and Zak O’Sullivan followed, with the latter lapping just 0.008s slower than Antonelli.

Both Campos drivers then headed out for their first run on fresh soft tyres, while the Prema duo switched over to a second set. Bearman was the first to set a sub-1m24s lap, but moments later was beaten by Campos’s Pepe Marti while Hadjar went third fastest.

Martins moved on to his second set of soft tyres 10 minutes later and went quickest by 0.014s, but did not stay on top for long as Hadjar set a 1m23.139s – the fastest lap of the test so far – halfway through the session. Marti also improved but dropped to fourth behind MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto.

There was then another red flag period as PHM Racing’s Joshua Duerksen went off at the last corner and hit the barriers.

The track went green again with an hour to go and Trident’s Richard Verschoor did his first qualifying run, having previously tested different car set-ups. Half an hour later track action was stopped again as Hitech’s Paul Aron found the wall and picked up sustained significant damage to the rear and right-hand side of his car.

Several drivers headed out when the next restart occurred with less than 11 minutes to go of the session. Nobody could get near Hadjar’s benchmark, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi became the last driver to fit soft tyres. He went 15th fastest.

Morning session results