Photo: Glenn Dunbar / FIA F2 Championship
Nyck de Vries returned to the top of the times on the opening day of the second Formula 2 pre-season test at Barcelona.
ART Grand Prix driver De Vries, who topped the opening two days at Jerez last week before Mick Schumacher went fastest on day three, led both the morning and afternoon session.
He recorded a 1m28.821s lap in the morning, before topping the afternoon running with a 1m28.655s set with around 15 minutes left on the clock.
Sergio Sette Camara went second soon afterwards, 0.117 seconds slower than de Vries, whose team-mate Nikita Mazepin slotted into third.
Luca Ghiotto and Louis Deletraz were closest to de Vries in the morning with times good enough to put them fourth and fifth overall ahead of Mick Schumacher, who beat the Virtuosi driver to fourth in the afternoon session.
Schumacher and Prema team-mate Sean Gelael didn’t post a time during the morning, but did officially clock up a combined 62 laps.
Jack Aitken was the last driver to make the 1m28s with the lap that put him fourth in the morning session. Guanyu Zhou and Gelael ended the day eighth and ninth, with Ralph Boschung 10th after reclaiming the Trident seat he shared with Antonio Fuoco at Jerez.
There were two other changes to the line-up. Roberto Merhi joined Aitken at Campos – the team he saw out 2018 with – in place of Dorian Boccolacci.
MP Motorsport meanwhile paired Jordan King with Mahaveer Raghunathan, the former European Formula 3 driver who previously tested with the team at the end of 2016.
Combined times
| Pos | Driver | Team | Morning | Afternoon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 1:28.821 | 1:28.655 |
| 2 | Sergio Sette Camara | DAMS | 1:24.240 | 1:28.772 |
| 3 | Nikita Mazepin | ART Grand Prix | 1:29.107 | 1:28.829 |
| 4 | Luca Ghiotto | Virtuosi | 1:28.869 | 1:28.993 |
| 5 | Louis Deletraz | Carlin | 1:28.875 | 1:34.850 |
| 6 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | no time | 1:28.886 |
| 7 | Jack Aitken | Campos Racing | 1:28.928 | 1:29.459 |
| 8 | Guan Yu Zhou | Virtuosi | 1:29.589 | 1:29.070 |
| 9 | Sean Gelael | Prema | no time | 1:29.180 |
| 10 | Ralph Boschung | Trident | 1:29.708 | 1:29.249 |
| 11 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1:29.343 | 1:35.290 |
| 12 | Juan Manuel Correa | Sauber / Charouz | 1:30.000 | 1:29.391 |
| 13 | Nobuharu Matsushita | Carlin | 1:29.413 | 1:35.235 |
| 14 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1:29.492 | 1:30.169 |
| 15 | Anthoine Hubert | Arden | 1:29.709 | 1:29.848 |
| 16 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 1:29.743 | 1:29.952 |
| 17 | Roberto Merhi | Campos Racing | 1:29.752 | 1:35.664 |
| 18 | Callum Ilott | Sauber / Charouz | 1:29.796 | 1:29.776 |
| 19 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden | 1:30.773 | 1:30.185 |
| 20 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | MP Motorsport | 1:34.373 | 1:31.639 |