Martins goes fastest then causes red flags on last morning of F2 test

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Victor Martins put in the quickest time on Wednesday morning at Barcelona in the penultimate Formula 2 pre-season test session.

The track was wet at the start of the day, and all but one driver opted for slick tyres when going for timed laps. Some did use the wet compound for installation laps and pitstop practice though.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett was fastest at first, then Trident duo Max Esterson and Sami Meguetounif lowered the pace into the 1m36s before red flags waved at the end of the first half-hour due to DAMS’ Kush Maini getting into trouble at turn three. Meguetounif caused another stoppage not long after.

Only seven drivers had set laptimes after hour one of three, with AIX Racing’s Cian Shields (the only driver to do proper wet tyre running) in fourth ahead of Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek and Leonardo Fornaroli.

Stanek later improved to fourth, then Rodin Motorsport sent its drivers out and they quickly got up to speed. Christian Mansell lowered the pace to 1m35.233s, then a few laps later Alex Dunne set a 1m28.493s to sit 0.316 seconds ahead of his team-mate. Stanek and Fornaroli lapped in the 1m35s to be third and fourth fastest.

Mansell took back top spot with a 1m28.033s lap set 75 minutes in, and at the session’s halfway point Dunne was back ahead by 0.443s after setting a 1m27.590s. Only nine drivers in total had completed laps.

Esterson made a big gain to 1m28.505s, and with 75 minutes to go Meguetounif set a new 1m27.279s benchmark.

More improvements came at the end of hour two, as Bennett set a 1m29.118s then MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor and Oliver Goethe slotted into first and third. Verschoor lapped in 1m27.013s, and Goethe was 0.288s slower.

Goethe lowered his personal best by 0.045s going into the final hour, as Stanek set successive improvements but remained in eighth. There were still only 10 drivers with laptimes to their name.

A few minutes later Stanek went on another run of small improvements, ended by red flags waving when Prema’s Sebastian Montoya had to be tugged back to the pits.

With 42 minutes left on the clock, Verschoor was usurpsed by a 1m26.311s lap from Bennett. DAMS’ Jak Crawford got within 0.009s of it, then Maini smashed the new benchmark by 0.427s.

Only three drivers were still yet to get a time on the board entering the final half-hour, as AIX’s Joshua Duerksen lapped 0.391s slower than Maini to rise to second.

Crawford and Maini improved to 1m25.580s and 1m25.593s with 22 mintes to go, and Esterson was just 0.127s behind in third.

Campos Racing and ART Grand Prix sent out their drivers last, and with 18 minutes remaining ART GP’s Victor Martins and Ritomo Miyata were one-two. A 1m24.673s put Martins on top by 0.475s, and Mansell had an issue at turn three that led to red flags and prevented the top two from being challenged.

When green flags waved with six minutes remaining, the top six headed back out along with Prema, Hitech GP and Invicta’s drivers who were all way off the pace. Campos’s Arvid Lindblad and Stanek improved, then Martins went fastest in sector one but caused red flags in sector two.

Despite that ending the session, the timekeepers still registered an improvement afterwards from Maini that put him into second. It was later deleted, and Lindblad’s flying laps were too.

Morning session results