MP’s Dennis Hauger fastest on day one of F2 pre-season testing

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger was fastest on day one of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Bahrain, which consisted of one three-hour session.

Despite the need for teams and drivers to learn the new Dallara F2 2024 car, there was limited running due to the desert track being wet.

Isack Hadjar was the first to complete an outlap 34 minutes into the session, with 11 others having headed out but then returned to the pits before triggering the timing beam.

Three more drivers headed out in the next few minutes, and Hauger was first to record a timed lap with a 2m07.309s set 40 minutes in. He improved to 1m54.615s, and after three quarters of an hour there was another name on the timesheet as Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli set a 1m55.539s. Six drivers were still yet to even complete an outlap.

Hauger improved again to 1m53.720s on his next lap, as Hadjar and Franco Colapinto recorded their first timed efforts.

After 55 minutes there were six drivers with flying laps to their name, with Antonelli still in second with a 1m54.154s. Colapinto occupied third with a 1m54.534s, Hadjar was 0.116s seconds slower, while the efforts of Roman Stanek and Rafael Villagomez were not set at a representative pace.

Soon Stanek and Zak O’Sullivan were disputing fifth place, and the latter started the second hour by joining Hauger in lapping sub-1m54s. There were now 11 drivers who had set laptimes, and Victor Martins rose to sixth with a 1m54.879s then knocked Hauger off the top by 0.085s.

Hauger responded with a 1m53.175s to reclaim first place, and Paul Aron headed out on track to become the 19th driver to complete an outlap.

Two minutes later Martins reduced Hauger’s advantage to 0.192 seconds, then little happened on track for 66 minutes.

Kush Maini completed his first outlap with 45 minutes to go, while Taylor Barnard went on a run that brought him up to eighth place with a 1m54.707s. DAMS’ drivers set their first timed laps with 37 minutes left on the clock, and Zane Maloney left it even later.

Jak Crawford went seventh fastest with 32 minutes to go, as Ollie Bearman finally completed his first outlap. His team-mate Antonelli then went third fastest with a 1m53.689s, as Enzo Fittipaldi got into 10th place.

Antonelli improved again, setting a 1m54.511s, and Maloney went fifth fastest with a 1m54.076s. Fittipaldi climbed two spots, Maloney set a 1m53.706s to go fourth and Crawford rose to sixth with a 1m53.983s as everybody else returned to the pits with 22 minutes remaining.

Crawford found another tenth of a second and Bearman slotted into ninth place with his first flying lap, and Maloney then went second fastest with a 1m53.351s.

Gabriel Bortoleto left it until 13 minutes from the end of the day before doing an outlap, and red flags waved immediately after. The session restarted with five minutes to go, but with Pepe Marti having not returned to the pits red flags waved again for two more minutes.

Bortoleto had time to set two laps after that but was slowest, with Maini not even setting a flying lap.

Day one results