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Hauger starts F2 post-season testing on top with MP

by Ida Wood

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Red Bull junior Dennis Hauger started Formula 2’s post-season tes at Yas Marina Circuit on top in the Wednesday morning session.

The three-day test began with a three-hour morning session running from 9am to midday, and it was Virtuosi Racing’s Alpine junior Jack Doohan who initially set the pace over Red Bull’s Ayumu Iwasa (DAMS) and Roman Stanek (Trident).

Hitech GP and MP Motorport’s drivers did not set flying laps in the first half-hour, while transponder issues meant the laptimes of Prema’s cars were not picked up.

Doohan and MP driver Hauger were fairly evenly matched as they brought the pace down into the 1m36s in the second hour of running, with Richard Verschoor (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Amaury Cordeel (Virtuosi) also able to lap sub-1m37s while Hitech’s Isack Hadjar was still yet to post a laptime and his team-mate Jak Crawford was slowest of all.

Hauger returned to the pits and stayed there for much of the final hour, not needing to improve on his best lap as the vast majority of the entry list either also spent their time in the garages or were unable to improve on their pace and rise up the order.

One driver who did was ART Grand Prix’s FIA Formula 3 champion Victor Martins, who went from 12th to fifth place with three quarters of an hour to go, and Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi also lapped sub-1m37s before pitting.

Doohan spent more time on track than anyone else but his run plan in the final hour was not with the intention of beating Hauger’s laptime and he ended the session second fastest, 0.085 seconds behind.

Less than two tenths of a second covered the top seven, with the top 10 completed by Iwasa, Prema’s Frederik Vesti and ART GP’s Theo Pourchaire whose fastest lap was his last but was set with 41 minutes left of the session.

Morning session results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Dennis Hauger MP Motorport 1m36.821s 28
2 Jack Doohan Virtuosi 1m36.906s +0.085s 41
3 Richard Verschoor VAR 1m36.924s +0.103s 28
4 Amaury Cordeel Virtuosi 1m36.941s +0.120s 36
5 Victor Martins ART GP 1m36.987s +0.166s 36
6 Enzo Fittipaldi Carlin 1m36.997s +0.176s 29
7 Roman Stanek Trident 1m37.018s +0.197s 25
8 Ayumu Iwasa DAMS 1m37.159s +0.338s 22
9 Frederik Vesti Prema 1m37.225s +0.404s 33
10 Theo Pourchaire ART GP 1m37.264s +0.443s 32
11 Clement Novalak Trident 1m37.361s +0.540s 22
12 Jehan Daruvala MP Motorsport 1m37.371s +0.550s 29
13 Roy Nissany Charouz Racing System 1m37.605s +0.784s 32
14 Arthur Leclerc DAMS 1m37.619s +0.798s 33
15 Zane Maloney Carlin 1m37.678s +0.857s 30
16 Ollie Bearman Prema 1m37.730s +0.909s 33
17 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1m37.820s +0.999s 28
18 Kush Maini Campos Racing 1m37.982s +1.161s 20
19 Rafael Villagomez VAR 1m38.160s +1.339s 32
20 Brad Benavides Charouz Racing System 1m38.893s +2.072s 20
21 Isack Hadjar Hitech GP 1m39.275s +2.454s 8
22 Jak Crawford Hitech GP 1m39.694s +2.873s 25